The Dandy Warhols - The Dandy Warhols Are Sound (Beat the World Records, 2009)

Here's the backstory on The Dandy Warhols Are Sound: Between September 11th, 2001 and December 2nd, 2002, The Dandy Warhols were busy recording their fourth album for Capitol Records. With help from Grammy Award-winning soul mixing engineer Russell Elavedo, whose credits include albums by The Roots, Common and Alicia Keys, The Dandy Warhols created The Dandy Warhols Are Sound. However, Capitol rejected the album in favor of a repackaged version with spiffier production, a re-arranged tracklist, slightly altered titles and a sparse, lethargic intro track instead of an extensive ambient outro track. The Capitol-approved version of Are Sound was subsequently released as Welcome to the Monkey House, as Dandys fans came to know and love. Over the next seven years, while Are Sound became a favorite for private Dandys parties, it also floated around the Internet as the colloquially-dubbed Welcome to the Monkey House: The Director's Cut. Finally though, with The Dandy Warhols at the helm of their own label Beat the World Records, they've been able to release Monkey House the way they intended the record to be heard.

Admittedly, on first impression, tampering with the track order and song titles seem like the only things Capitol did, but that's only because Are Sound opens with "Burned" which doesn't sound very different from the Monkey House version "You Come In Burned." As soon as the slowburning, throbbing temple-like "Burned" began, I already kind of wished The Dandy Warhols were allowed to release the original mix, despite how much I love Monkey House. I never thought "You Come In Burned" would make such a good opener. Like frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor said, Are Sound is way more lo-fi and less polished and slick, although the drums and bass are far more pronounced (not a surprise, given its producer's style). This is immediately apparent as soon as the second track, simply titled "Scientist" rather than "I Am a Scientist," begins. The differences become increasingly apparent with the next track, party-favorite "We Used to Be Friends," and so on for the rest of the album.

Whereas Monkey House is a record you can put on with friends or blast through your car stereo while blasting down the open road, Are Sound is a quiet, chill night in with dim lights, some green and aromatic candles. Actually, Are Sound is more like Welcome to the Monkey House on sedatives or listening to Monkey House on shuffle with cotton stuffed in your ears. Hear the difference between the albums' versions of "The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone" and "Over It," the latter in which the sounds of a lighter, bong hit and exhalation seem more appropriate on the original mix.

Besides all of the aforementioned, there's not much else to say about The Dandy Warhols Are Sound that can't be said about Welcome to the Monkey House. The only reason why I'm even really talking about Are Sound is because the only real news of it came very suddenly through The Dandy Warhols' newsletter and website. Some Dandys fans (including some diehards I know) probably haven't even heard about it. Hell, The Dandy Warhols have been one of my favorite bands since I started listening to them eight years ago, and I didn't even know about The Director's Cut until I got the e-mail which said, "Hey, this is out!"

Are Sound is available in its entirety at The Dandy Warhols' site here. No idea how long these full length, good quality "previews" will be available.