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De Novo Dahl - Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound

Road Runner

If Rivers Cuomo retained all of his nerdiness but had an extroverted personality, Weezer’s Blue Album would have probably sounded a lot like De Novo Dahl’s sophomore effort, Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound. That is, big, dumb, incredibly fun and endlessly catchy.

Muscle begins with “Shout,” which might as well be De Novo Dahl’s modus operandi. The song bursts with energy, gigantic guitars, gang vocals and unavoidable Mike Tyson hooks. “Shout” races along at a dizzying clip as if it’s always trying to get back to its enormous chorus, which will replay itself in listeners’ heads for days after only one listen. The song is a far cry from high art, but it’s an absolute blast.

The rest of the album mainly follows the path that “Shout” lays out, namely unflagging energy and impossible-to-avoid choruses. Even when the band changes things up — like on “Shakedown” with its strings and soulful horn section, or on “Marketplace,” which builds like Radiohead’s “Exit Music (For a Film),” but possesses the bluster of The Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” — it’s all in service of hooks, hooks and more hooks.

Because of this dedication to being catchy, De Novo Dahl occasionally comes across as superficial, but the band doesn’t claim to make capital “S” serious music, they just want to have fun. At that, Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound emphatically succeeds.


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