A garage band makes loud, sloppy, often catchy music. The ethos is that increasing the energy will overcome any technical deficiencies. Dott turns this on its head, crafting bashy garage anthems that are filled to the brim with skill and panache. The songs are loud, and they don't shy away from distortion, but does that make this real garage?

Dott Heart Swell (Graveface)

Good God. This is perhaps the dumbest strawman argument I've ever put to paper. Garage is what you want it to be, and good music is good music. Dott does gravitate toward a pop anthem construction, and it does that well. Despite the fist-raising choruses, however, these songs move. The sound is much more rough-hewn, but I get a real Magnapop feel at times.

And that's not just the female vocals. The hooks here are sweet, no matter how much buzzsaw might be bleeding in from the guitar. And the backing vocal gymnastics are positively Spectorian. Which is another reason why garage might be the wrong description, but I'm way too tired to go into that again.

Rather, I think I'll just spin this sucker again and bite into the wire. The energy and power of these songs cannot be denied. Dott blisters the ears. Is there really anything else that needs to be said?

Jon Worley