IN REVIEW: Brody Dalle - "Diploid Love"

This has been a long time coming for fans of Brody Dalle; after a successful run with ferocious punk ragers The Distillers ended about a decade ago, she hasn't been exactly promoting herself with consistency. There was that one album with Spinnerette in 2009 which was met with a muted (though favourable) response, but she's spent the majority of her post-Distillers time being married to Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and caring for their two children.

Being a wife and mother has surely made Dalle a happier, more mature person, and it's great to hear these experiences make their way into her recording; Diploid Love isn't simply a batch of half-baked songs done on a whim, it's a chronicle of a new, exciting chapter in her life. There isn't much of the Distillers-era Dalle to be heard on this album, but it makes for a more resonant listen; much of the anger gives way to hope, despair is traded in for resolve.

When she sings on Carry On, "say hello to my little friend", she's not singing about Scarface's weaponry; it's a lead-in to Meet the Foetus/Oh the Joy, the album's central piece about the experience of childbirth and the unconditional love that springs from it. She even has her children on the record, in the form of their recorded laughter (we'll talk more about that in a minute).

Musically, Diploid Love is a hard record to pin down. It seems to have three core elements that are prevalent, though songs often branch off into other directions and/or switch up full stop mid song. The sequencing helps lessen the blow of the stylistic twists and turns. The opening third houses the most up tempo and rock centric tracks; opener Rat Race and Don't Mess With Me are driving, groove-laden songs (much of that groove is the handiwork of Spinnerette bandmate and frequent QOTSA collaborator Alain Johannes), while the speedy Underworld is as close to The Distillers as you get on this record. The midsection is where the sound starts expanding, with some new wave sheen finding its way to Dressed in Dreams, Carry On and Meet the Foetus' first half (Oh the Joy, the track's closing section, is something I can only describe as bliss punk).

The last three tracks are where Diploid Love really gets interesting. I Don't Need Your Love is a slow, brooding epic which sees Dalle trying on a breathy, almost Sade-like falsetto as the musical accompaniment calmly builds a wall of hollow noise around her, with an abrupt break around the midway point for the aforementioned laughter of her children to punctuate the song's message. She doesn't need the antagonist's love because she has two beautiful children for that now. That innocent, pure laughter is a far more effective jab than any words Dalle could have come up with; it's a stark, jarring moment within the album's most stark, jarring song.

It's followed by Blood in Gutters, a near-gothic turn with eerie use of snyths and rhythm that call to mind some of QOTSA's creepier moments before the album closes out with the cold, adulterer-baiting Parties for Prostitutes. Propelled by a mechanical waltz and a host of mournful, sputtering noises, it bubbles and boils along with Dalle before exploding into a final fit of punk rock fury and fading out abruptly into the aether.

A few tracks overstay their welcome just a bit due to repetition, and the sparse use of real drumming (two thirds feature programmed drums and/or drum machines) takes away a measure of vibrancy that would have helped a few songs feel less calculated, but Diploid Love is an immensely listenable (and re-listenable) record chiefly because it doesn't rely too heavily on one sound and isn't afraid to go anywhere or do anything. I wouldn't have predicted it at the start of the year, but Brody Dalle has crafted one of the year's most interesting and adventurous records.

April 29, 2014 • Queen of Hearts/Anthem

Highlights Rat Race • Don't Mess With Me • I Don't Need Your Love