The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & his Magnificent Ukulele
I feel a little mean writing this review, but I find this album genuinely irritating and I feel oddly compelled to explain why. I saw Dent May play live at the Electric Circus here recently, and he and his band came across as perfectly decent guys, so this isn’t supposed to be a personal dig exactly, although I suppose it will be unlikely for this post not to irritate them, should they ever happen to read it.
So why does this record annoy me so much? Well simple, really: it’s just too sodding arch. The whole thing is buried under such an avalanche of coy glances, knowing winks and wry humour that there is almost no emotional core to the album whatsoever. I know that there’s only so much heartfelt confessional we can take in our music, and I am not asking bands to all become unbearably earnest all of a sudden, but I do want some sincerity.
Any album smothered in so much humour manages to deflect the true emotions of the writer so far away from the music itself that I find absolutely nothing to latch onto at all. It’s all so clever and such a fucking great big in-joke that I’m left thinking ‘well, who the fuck are you then, really?’ It’s impossible to get a read on whether or not you empathise with the music if you don’t ever hear anything resembling an unguarded, honest remark. And if you don’t empathise with the songs or the lyrics, how do you end up feeling attached to anything?
Ironically arranged ditties about failed parties, attractive girls and smug middle class frat boys are fine. It’s all stuff I can identify with, but it’s like talking to the smart-arse who sits near the back of the class and appears constantly amused and tolerantly contemptuous of the rest of their classmates: it can be amusing and engaging and actually quite attractive, but if you talk to them further and that veneer never drops, you find yourself asking if there really is any depth there at all.
It just all comes across as juvenile, in some ways. At some point you have to open yourself up a little to other people, and risk the sneers they might return your way, because otherwise you just come across as a coward and sulky teenager. Ultimately, sneering is fun, but after you’ve enjoyed yourself you have to actually have something to say.
This is not all aimed at Dent May and his band by any means, but they are certainly symptomatic of what I see as a larger trend. I am sick of bands who bury themselves beneath these layers of irony, and there are a lot of them. It’s just not enough – it’s not brave enough. I admire bands that can do away with the defence of obscure lyrics and arch cleverness, because they are eschewing the protection that brings, and there is only so long you can hide from the world like this before they lose interest and conclude that far from being cool or clever, you are just a tedious dick who doesn’t have the balls to have a sincere conversation in case the scorn you have been heaping on the world actually gets thrown back at you. Grow a pair.
Dent May & his Magnificent Ukulele – You Can’t Force a Dance Party
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Dent May & his Magnificent Ukulele – The Girls on the Square
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I love Dent May, and his Ukulele. The music doesn’t change the world but it makes me smile. He does a great cover of When You Were Mine by Prince.
I agree, Mr. Toad; couldn’t work out why it annoyed me, try as I did to like it, but you’re right: it is way tooo sodding arch.
Good to see you last night, btw…
It’s GOOD FEELING!
Tbh, I don’t listen to his lyrics at all.
But I DO dance around the kitchen singing along to ’26 miles’ and imitating that weird swoopish thing his voice does.
I don’t think his music is meant for further analysis (that’s possibly more insulting than your review. And I don’t mean to say that your review was insulting.)
Also, ukulele. I think I have mentioned my fondness for the ukulele before.
Ach, shutting up now.
any band that anounces itself as a ukulele band is asking for trouble. the songs are not too bad – reminded me a bit like jonathan richman (i guess the plaintive vocals). richman does contempt well – but his lyrics can be insightful as well as goofy. plus, you get a sense with richman that he really enjoys rock and roll.
Volders – I love the uke, and I am not analysing it exactly, I just find it annoyingly evasive.
Chris – the problem for is just as you say: they don’t give you the impression they have anything else to say.
Eeek. I’ve never heard this before and I really have no opinion about the ironic archness, etc. But I will say that his voice on that first tune sounds like fingernails on a fucking blackboard. It sounds like someone impersonating a gay stereotype. Not pleasant.
Talking of ukuleles, is
this not just blatant uke porn?
I so want one.
its ukeless man, just ukeless!
I despise speaking ill of the not-yet-famous-enough and I saw the band and the man play live here recently and chose to not review. That says enough if you know me at all.
He DOES have a rather large following here, I have to say. The crowd was huge for the venue (150 capacity and I think it was near to sold out) and rowdy for him, singing along and very appreciative! So, it’s not him I think, it’s me.
If anything, he sounds like a braying donkey at times (although nails on a blackboard = braying donkey [?] so I can kind of see your point.)
Still, ’26 miles, so near yet far…’
I think it’s insightful stuff.
Not yet famous? He’s pretty well known as far as I am aware. His gigs tend to either reach capacity or there’s always a bloody good presence at them. I unfortunately missed him when he played Cardiff last (as the main act, with a fairly well known Welsh band in support) as I was away in the US; we were planning an interview him but TWoTH chickened out because I wasn’t there
I actually enjoyed the gig, and I also think he has some good tunes. I don’t hate the music at all, it’s just that one aspect of it which is quite widespread and is really getting on my nerves at the moment.
I think the same thing infects The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain — it’s a kind of Middle Class party favour slant to the voices that every now & then reminds me I’m listening to a shared in-joke.
Wholeheartedly agree on the shortcomings of over-ironied songs. I find it quite difficult to listen to most tunes that aim at chuckles, whether it’s knowing cover versions or actual comedy songs. I like comedy fine, as well as comments wry, ironic, knowing and/or funny, but I think it does come down to wanting something different from music. The folk that can pull it off need to have absolute masses of charm and some real feeling behind it- like their mariachi cover of Blue Monday was just bursting out of them.
I’m glad you said that, Johnny. And that’s the thing, maybe it’s my heritage, but I can never tell if Mr. May is being funny on purpose. And then when I convince myself he is, it’s just not that funny. There, I’ve done and been mean to him. I’m sorry now.
But having just seen The Lovely Eggs, I can tell you that when they pull it off, they are brilliantly funny. It’s Holly’s level of charm that does it, as you rightly note.
Thank you for so succinctly explaining why I was totally put off by this. I could barely even bring myself to listen after hearing the band name or looking at the record cover. Once I did listen…well, I wasn’t particularly happy.
i think there’s a sadness to the album beneath the humor…
how can you post “girls on the square” and say there’s no emotional core to the album? the songs are funny and sad and a bit confusing all at the same time, which is why i dig them.