Sunday, June 07, 2009
A+E, Music, Reviews

New York Dolls

“’CAUSE I SEZ SO”  (ATCO)

When the New York Dolls reformed in 2006 after more than 30 years apart and most of its original members departed for that great glam band in the sky, you could hear music lovers groaning from coast to coast. After all, the trashed-out sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll aesthetic the group reveled in during its brief heyday proved a fatal concoction for most of its five participants. Could cleaned-up, sober survivors David Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain recapture the decadence they’d long since left behind? Would anyone care to see a few AARP-eligible musicians trying to recreate the past glories of their misbegotten youth?

    The short answer is yes, and despite the odds, the reformed Dolls released a critically acclaimed 2006 album, followed by a headlining stint on Little Steven’s Underground Garage tour. The reunion was so successful that this second project appeared shortly thereafter, reuniting Johansen and Sylvain with producer Todd Rundgren, who manned the boards for their 1973 debut.

    While much of the shock and awe has been tamped down, Johansen remains in fine booming voice, Sylvain can still write a killer hook, and the three replacements capture the original Dolls’ loose, raw swagger. Just cue up “Nobody Got No Bizness” for a sense of the soulful bluster that must be in Johansen’s DNA.

    Perhaps we could have skipped a tame, reggae-fied remake of the immortal “Trash,” but otherwise, these older, wiser Dolls have delivered a far more convincing, and lasting, reunion than anyone could have expected. 3 STARS—Hal Horowitz