Dogs D’Amour

Straight Up 2021

KING OUTLAW/CARGO Digital reshuffle breathes life into old Dogs.

While many bands re-enact their classic albums live, few re-record them. After Dogs D’Amour mainstay Tyla had revisited their 90s landmark Straight with his current line-up of Stoneshomaging swashbucklers, the file-transfer system at mastering automatically placed its 12 tracks in alphabetical order, unintentionally providing a fresh new perspective, which he decided to keep.

Coming after 1989’s chartinvading A Graveyard Of Empty Bottles, Straight marked the Dogs’ gutter-glam peak, mixing rollicking anthems such as No Gypsy Blood and Lie In The Land with wasted bar-stool ballads like Heroine

and Kiss My Heart Goodbye,

Tyla’s poetic lyricism remaining relevant by eschewing the era’s inherent misogyny with Bukowski-inspired romanticism.

Now, beginning with the selfexplanatory Back On The Juice

and closing with the reflective You Can’t Burn The Devil, Tyla’s charred, heartfelt vocals show that there’s life in the old Dog yet, along with a cool ghost in the machine. ■■■■■■■■■■