The Capitol Years: 1995-2007

Album Review

The Dandy Warhols began their career on the indie label Tim/Kerr and eventually founded their own independent imprint, Beat the World, but a big chunk of their albums were released by one of the most major of majors: Capitol Records. Best of the Capitol Years 1995-2007 does what it advertises, distilling the band’s eight-year stint on the label down to its essence. Though it leaves off the Dandys’ sometimes confounding, often druggy experimental moments, it still captures the sarcastic and searching sides (and the tension between them) that make the band unique. “Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth,” “Bohemian Like You,” “We Used to Be Friends,” and “All the Money or the Simple Life Honey” display Courtney Taylor-Taylor and company’s dead-on eye for pop culture satire, skewering hipsters, conspicuous consumption, and frenemies with takes-one-to-know-one wit. Meanwhile, “Godless,” “Holding Me Up,” and “Good Morning” remain among the group’s most beautiful and introspective moments, adding depth to their body of work. Interestingly, the collection switches out a couple of tracks from Welcome to the Monkey House (“Scientist” and “Plan A”) with versions of those songs from the 2009 remixed version of that album, The Dandy Warhols Are Sound. It’s a change that perhaps only the most devoted Dandys fans will notice, but it reflects the care that went into the compilation. Best of the Capitol Years 1995-2007 is one of those fairly rare greatest hits sets that brings a group’s work into focus instead of reducing it to just the singles.