December 01, 2005

Dengue Fever | Escape from Dragon House |BMG | USA

buy it
Listening to a recent NPR review of Dengue Fever's sophmore release, I got a bit of a reality check when Sarah Bardeen refered to the band's psychedelic Cambodian pop sounds as "a joyfully weird hybrid." After a decade of listening to old Asian pop, I found myself saying, "This is weird?" But that's the glory of Escape from Dragon House: it's got the pop hooks, classic production and stellar musicianship to make the "weird" charming for some, while still charming the weirdos who've worn the grooves off the first Cambodian Rocks release.