Brody Dalle was the scream-feeding matriarch of hot-blooded punks The Distillers and she never used to care that much. So it seemed. Superficially, Diploid Love recalls a Blondie-like transformation. The cover suggests a cigar-chomping producer ordered Dalle to “sing, dammit!” and begin her inevitable pop chart climb. Not so. Dalle’s reaching for something far more unsettling by reaching within.
Nick Valensi handles guitars on Rat Race, idling in his ultra-cool Strokes comfort zone. Funnily enough, they enter a Julian Casablancas-like 11th Dimension in disco rocker Carry On. Dalle and band, featuring Spinnerette and Queens of the Stone Age members Alain Johannes and Michael Schuman, serve typical punk fare in Don’t Mess With Me and Underworld, the latter garnished with brassy mariachi.
A collab with Garbage’s Shirley Manson on Meet the Foetus/Oh the Joy leaks into Dressed in Dreams, featuring Dalle’s darkening pop-industrial shuffle. I Don’t Need Your Love torments retro baroque-pop strings, reaching peak creep as baby Camille and Ryder sempiternally fidget and laugh. Bits of Spinnerette blow kisses toward Blood in Gutters and her best vocal on the record. Parties for Prostitutes? Well, things get weirder.Just like life.
Titled Diploid Love instead of Family Love or Baby Love (a diploid is a copy of chromosomes from a mother and a father, y’see) suggests Dalle’s not quite ready to close the door on her punk past. There’s cheek suffused in those shades of blue. Because in Dalle’s world, love alone won’t conquer pent-up heartache, nor will it satisfy her need to rock and rebel.
BY TOM VALCANIS
Best Track: Blood in Gutters
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: SPINNERETTE, THE STROKES, GARBAGE
In A Word: Tempered
