Some band genuinely surprise you when they release a debut album. The build up to and subsequent promotion of ‘You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into’ is an appropriate title given the singles delivered so far by Does It Offend You Yeah?. ‘We Are Rockstars’ is deceptively noisy electronica and ‘Let’s Make Out’ is pure rubbish. So it is hard to know what to expect next.
Unlike the title suggests, ‘Dawn Of The Dead’ is not a stomping monster. It glides and flows. The transformation from noisy electro-rock to this wonderfully constructed melody is either a private joke or a genuine attempt to create some easy listening. The band once described as the new Rage Against The Machine now sound like Athlete. Even the cheesy “oo aw” backing vocals are accepted as the chorus is so good. If there is a problem here it is use of such a well played formula. Does It Offend You Yeah? is based on being different and this just sounds too ordinary. But a good tune is a good tune.
Compared to previous singles like the Daft Punk inspired ‘We Are Rockstars‘ and the ghastly ‘Let‘s Make Out‘, ‘Dawn Of The Dead’ is very atypical Does It Offend You Yeah?. There are no rough edges, no huge swathes of electronic guitars and no horrible vocals or vocoders. The signs were there on ‘Epic Last Song’ but at last we have a proper single from a proper band.
-- CS (for The Music Magazine 2008)
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