The Dandy Warhols
[#] The Black Album (1996)
For those who can hold their liquor.
Reviewed January 12, 2026
The sound of the Dandys looking to get some dirt on their already scuzzy garage-gaze, through its initial unrelease, leaking, band distaste for the leak, and eventual official release about three or four times over now, The Black Album has had more warped afterlives than any other record in their catalog. Trumpets that somehow feed back like guitars, vocals buried in effects, and a middle section given way to swishing, wavering starfields of synths, this is through-and-through the sound of overindulgence—and it's kinda awesome, if you're the right kind of listener. By no means better than its poppier, shinier remake, but a thrilling grower in its own right.
The Black Album makes more sense if you look at it as a continuation of their debut rather than compare it to ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down. The grubby sweet guitars and lazy, hushed vocals of a "Not Your Bottle" or "Genius" are all over this thing, and "Crack Cocaine Rager" (how's that for a fruit basket to your new label?) struts like a lower-fidelity "Grunge Betty" or "T.V. Theme Song". If the poppy, narcotic tang of "Ride" is more your thing, look no closer than "Arpeggio Adaggio" or the original version of "Good Morning". This is a record for the patient, those who don't mind an occasionally grating horn in their ear, and the way they turn "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" into a crackling, nine-minute psych-rock storm enough to capsize your stereo is maybe the perfect microcosm of the entire play here.
(In more recent times, I've procured a copy of the leaked version of The Black Album, featuring a few tracks cut from the official CD release I reviewed here. Of the cut tracks, "Traci Lords" is the gem, a screeching, melodic bruiser, stacked with reversed guitars and wordless singing that fall to bits in its final moments. Conversely, "Alien" attempts throwback garage rock but is mostly atonal and unfinished, and "You Get Hi" sure has those words in it. The two better of these three have since been released on The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald EP, itself a cure for the relevant track being missing from The Black Album's digital reissue. Save for crossfades and the aforementioned cuts, the release version is identical in mix and sequencing to the leaked version.)
| Essential: | "Arpeggio Adaggio", "Good Morning", "The Wreck" |
|---|---|
| Quintessential: | "Crack Cocaine Rager" |
| Non-Essential: | "Minnesoter" |
| Rating: |  |
| Further listening: | "First Draft: ...The Dandy Warhols Come Down" on Letters From Somnolescent |