Night Dolls with Hairspray
| Night Dolls with Hairspray | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 31, 2010 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 48:15 | |||
| Label | Olde English Spelling Bee | |||
| Producer | James Ferraro | |||
| James Ferraro chronology | ||||
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Night Dolls with Hairspray is a studio album by American electronic musician James Ferraro,[4] released on October 31, 2010 by Olde English Spelling Bee. Described as a "cycle of bubblegum pop songs,"[3] its lo-fi sound draws on sources such as 1980s pop culture tropes, B-movies, and glam punk. The album garnered generally favorable reviews from critics, and was called a "weirdo masterpiece of the 21st century" by Impose.
Composition[edit]
In an interview, Ferraro claimed he had gotten into "weird street fashion" while recording Night Dolls with Hairspray, which led to the album being influenced by glam rock and power pop styles.[5] Of the record's concept, Ferraro explained: "the idea itself was basically just private material, just fooling around. I was really inspired to try to make just weird B-movie style trash."[4] Many of the songs on Night Dolls with Hairspray feature Ferraro exaggeratedly singing in falsetto, which he claimed was "silly" and "harmless" and made the album sound "cool" and "futuristic".[2]
Pitchfork described the album's overall instrumentation as consisting of "plunging bass lines, warped guitar riffs, and crooning vocals" that "bounce around the stereo space like lasers in a hall of mirrors."[6] A reviewer for Playground magazine described the tracks as "fragmentary songs," in that it feels like each track cuts to different songs; this "collage effect" is an essential part of hypnagogic pop, in that the variety of 1980s musical styles serve as an "exercise in nostalgia".[3]
According to Nick Richardson of Fact magazine, Night Dolls with Hairspray explores the surfaces of popular media in the 1980s;[7] in doing so, Ferraro creates new bad behaviors for scenarios common in B movies of that decade.[7] The song "Leather High School" takes place in a 1980s high school movie situation, but adds a sexual context not normally present in such a movie: "The principal's wearing panties under his suit / They're taking him down to the boiler room / They're going to whip him till he bleeds."[7] "Buffy Honkerburg's Answering Machine" involves the singer as a stalker nerd sending lewd messages to a cheerleader in a slasher film scenario.[7]
Richardson noted that Night Dolls with Hairspray "reflects a fantastical vision of the present that's out of date and crumbling as soon as it's realised – even as the vision hairpins to a blemishless space of muscled, digital geometry."[7] The album features interludes that Richardson described as "disorienting amalgams of gross-out sound effects, shortwave radio noise, advertising jingles and cartoon theme tunes," which all represent the negative by-products of the entertainment community the album mocks.[7] Night Dolls with Hairspray also focuses on how most people positively view an otherwise bad entertainment industry today, where "real teenagers, like Ferraro records, are smelly, acnefied, confused; while Beyonce [sic] is a slick, inhuman cyborg".[7]
Critical reception[edit]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Fact | 4/5[7] |
| Pitchfork | 7.9/10[6] |
| Playground | 7.9/10[3] |
An Impose magazine journalist called Night Dolls with Hairspray a "weirdo masterpiece of the 21st century."[8] Marc Masters of Pitchfork described it as "remarkably catchy music," writing that fans of artists like Ariel Pink would enjoy the album; he also called it "dizzying" and "nauseating, much the way audiences left The Blair Witch Project more sick from the shaky camerawork than scared by the plot."[6] The Pitchfork blog Altered Zones called Night Dolls with Hairspray a "supremely listenable batch of hits" and "so poignant that it'll leave you wondering how you (actually) chuckled at the roach-infested creeps that populated the album."[3] In a harsher review, Joshua Paul Greene of MVRemix called the album "a painfully lo-fi, endlessly frenetic example of what I consider to be seriously unfulfilled potential."[9] He mainly criticized the editing, more specifically the placement of sounds that ruin the flow of each song that otherwise has "catchy melodies and rhythms",[9] and also chastised most of its songs for ending abruptly.[9]
Track listing[edit]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Dollhouse Frotteur" | 5:10 |
| 2. | "Runaway" | 6:32 |
| 3. | "Brittney's Gum" | 3:01 |
| 4. | "Leather High School" | 5:41 |
| 5. | "Buffy Honkerburg's Answering Machine" | 3:36 |
| 6. | "Lipstick On Ants" | 1:51 |
| 7. | "Killer Nerd" | 5:08 |
| 8. | "Roaches Watch TV" | 1:29 |
| 9. | "Roses And Mystery" | 4:31 |
| 10. | "Movie Monster" | 4:47 |
| 11. | "Radio Cherubs" | 6:29 |
| Total length: | 48:15 | |
Release history[edit]
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worldwide[10] | October 31, 2010 | Digital download | Olde English Spelling Bee |
References[edit]
- ^ MacFarlane, Richard (January 19, 2011). "Zoned In: James Ferraro: Night Dolls With Hairspray". Archived from the original on March 17, 2011. Altered Zones. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- ^ a b "James Ferraro interview: "The city of dream.". Dummy. February 8, 2011. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e Conte, Iván (January 19, 2011). "Night Dolls With Hairspray". Playground. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- ^ a b "Interview: James Ferraro And His Music Multiverse". Red Bull Music Academy. March 6, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
- ^ Cornwell, Samantha (January 3, 2011). "Artist Profile: James Ferraro". Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. Altered Zones. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- ^ a b c Masters, Marc (July 18, 2011). "James Ferraro: Nightdolls with Hairspray / On Air". Pitchfork. Conde Nast. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Richardson, Nick (January 5, 2011). "James Ferraro: Night Dolls with Hairspray". Fact. The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- ^ Krinsley, Jeremy (February 9, 2011). "New James Ferraro, "Tabloid 2". Impose. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- ^ a b c Paul Greene, Joshua (July 28, 2011). "James Ferraro – Night Dolls With Hairspray". MVRemix. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- ^ a b "Night Dolls With Hairspray". Olde English Spelling Bee Bandcamp. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
