IN REVIEW: Dorothy - "28 Days in the Valley"

After a lengthy lead-up to debut album ROCKISDEAD, it didn't take Dorothy Martin very long to follow it up; 28 Days in the Valley arrives just 21 months later. There's been a quick turnaround in style, too, as the metallic modern blues of the debut has been replaced with a more kaleidoscopic psych vibe akin to a Stonesy Jefferson Airplane or classic Heart with a little less muscle and a little more soul. This is likely thanks to Linda Perry's involvement, as the veteran producer also co-wrote these songs; the result is a cleaner, more colourful set of tunes that aims to draw more attention to Martin's performance as opposed to burying her under a wall of noise.

At first, 28 Days in the Valley delivers on all promises with pleasant results; Flawless, with its massive and melodic chorus and impassioned vocals, establishes itself as the best song this band has released to date, at least to my ears. Who Do You Love really drives home the Jefferson Airplane energy and Pretty When You're High is another big and tuneful mid-tempo rocker that would have most likely taken lead single duties if not for Flawless.

By the time we get to Mountain, yet another mid-tempo track (this time with a gospel feel), it starts to become clear that the high energy racket of ROCKISDEAD is, pun intended, dead. Lazy tempos and flourishes of psychedelia and soul are the order of the day, with a handful of faster passages inserted to pick things up every once in a while. Sometimes, such as on Freedom, the right balance is achieved; overall, though, 28 Days in the Valley becomes a bit of a chore to sit through, especially as the album trudges through its mid-section. Aside from a temporary uptick in tempo here and there, listeners are subjected to long stretches that kind of blur songs together into a haze.

The album gets so bogged down in places that perfectly serviceable songs (like Black Tar & Nicotine and Ain't Our Time To Die) become just more ballads in the pile, their impacts dulled in the context of a ballad-heavy album as we wait for any injection of energy to save us from the monotony. The album at least closes on a more energetic note, with the one-two punch of We Are STAARS and We Need Love closing things out on a psyched-out tent revival tip and a hot desert acid trip respectively. It's too little too late, but it's at least somewhat admirable that the attempt to go out on a high note was made.

As a reinvention of Dorothy's core sound, 28 Days in the Valley ticks all the boxes, but fans who wanted a continuation of the hard blues of ROCKISDEAD are likely to feel a combination of bewilderment, disappointment and drowsiness upon their initial listen to this album. There are some great songs here and, taken separately from the almost hour-long whole, a few of them are fantastic singles waiting to happen. As an album-length experience, though, it's a few songs too deep and would have benefited from a shorter run-time and/or some sequence tinkering to more evenly distribute the album's energy.

March 16, 2018 • Roc Nation
Highlights Flawless • Pretty When You're High • Freedom