Californian slacker kings get the retrospective treatment, not exactly flattering!

Anyone who's ever seen the film 'Dig' will probably never be able to think of or hear the Dandy Warhol's without evoking memories of that films grim humour and miserable denouncement and everyone else has probably heard Bohemian Like You more times than they care to remember so couldn't care less. It's a bold move then, to put out a best of record when you've only really had one actual hit but there's enough here to suggest The Dandy Warhols could have been a decent enough pop band if they were not so obsessed with copying the far superior works of their idols.

The band readily admit to plagiarism and almost every song here adheres to a strict template laid down by The Velvet Underground, The Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones decades prior with gurning, overdriven riffs, simple chord progressions and subtle, bluesy melodies off-set by a constant hazy atmosphere which suggests a band too in love with their own druggy legacy.

The hits ('Bohemian', 'We Used To Be Friends', 'Get Off') sound like Supergrass at their best and it's really here that the band shine, when they try to spread their wings however they fall flat. 'Holding Me Up' for example is a listless dirge, 'This Is The Tide' sounds like someone taking the piss out of The Jesus & Mary Chain and 'Scientist' is the synth-pop side project that never was and never should be. The gently building 'Good Morning' is the exception that proves this rule with it's delicate melodies buried beneath brooding, My Bloody Valentine distortion. Almost everything else here is just static nonsense though, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club pull pretty much the same tricks granted but at least they do it convincingly.

If Dig showed us anything it's that both of the bands it documented (the Dandies and fellow but superior Californian 60's revivalists The Brain Jonestown Massacre) put the rock and roll legend first and the music second. On the best of the Capitol years it shows!

Benjamin Hiorns