Album Review: Diamond Rings - Free Dimensional

Diamond Rings
Free Dimensional
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

John O'Regan, one of the founding members of post-punk quartet The D'Urbervilles as well as a member of the Casio-pop duo Habitat, is a musical chameleon, flitting around from post-punk, synth-pop, rap, and deconstructed R&B, barreling through his influences with little care as to whether one works or not. Live he is a bundle of almost chaotic energy, bouncing around the stage with charmingly awkward dance moves, but holding the audience completely in his thrall. All of this translated well on his debut album Special Affections, which while lacking in production polish made up for it in just sheer exuberance and moxie. Moving to a bigger label and with a better production budget, O'Regan unleashes his second album Free Dimensional which doesn't really change anything drastically from his debut in terms of his sound, except for sounding much more professional. For me, like Bat For Lashes' new record The Haunted Man, Free Dimensional is a good, occasionally great pop record, that never seems to really take off into the stratosphere, hovering too often in a safe pattern of pop hooks and lazy songwriting.

When Free Dimensional is on though, it is a really fun blast of 80's new wave leaning synth-pop. "I'm Just Me" bounces and throbs over a pulsing beat as synths erupt in ecstasy during the chorus.



"A to Z" has a lovely, quirky charm to its bouncy rhythm and bubblegum synths.



"Day & Night" is a reverential take on 80s R&B which is only marred by a slightly silly rap break.



Where Free Dimensional fails for me is where the tracks don't really go beyond mere pastiche. Second single "Runaway Love" is a rather bland guitar-heavy track that lacks texture and interest,



which bleeds into the lackluster "Put Me On" which suffers the same fate. And too often, the songs aim for a teeny-bop quality that seems to want to be ironic, but only ends up being cloying. "Stand My Ground" feels like a Tiffany/Debbie Gibson throwaway, while "Hand Over My Heart" has some hooky synths but about kills it with a mid-song rap break before finally regaining footing with a song closing breakdown.



But aside from these slight missteps, which still are very catchy and hooky, Free Dimensional is a great sounding record and also shows that O'Regan has some new tricks up his sleeve, like on the moody, synth driven opener "Everything Speaks" and the slightly Asian-infected synth jam "All The Time." But I just wanted more from this record, I will admit. I have seen O'Regan live now twice, once in a small club with just him and a bank of sequencers and second in a medium sized theater with a backing band, and he is a wildly talented, charismatic guy which just seems to be penned in on record. I am waiting for that one record of his where he takes all those influences that are blasting around in his head and makes something truly spectacular.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.