The dB’s first record Stands for Decibels received its first ever US vinyl pressing earlier this year, and with little delay comes a reissue of its follow-up, which is also making its vinyl debut in the States. Compact disc and digital options offer a bonus track. For the band’s second go-round, the songs remained edgy and distinctive with occasional flareups of quirk while building upon classic models. The whole of Repercussion, brighter and a bit bolder, completes one of the great rapid fire combo-punches in pop-rock’s long history. It’s available now through Propeller Sound Recordings.
It’s fitting that Propeller Sound chose not to dillydally in getting the dB’s essential early albums into stores, as both Stands for Decibels and Repercussion were released in 1981. In consort with their UK label Albion, the speedy pace of the band’s productivity strengthened the 1960s foundation from which guitarist-vocalists Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, bassist Gene Holder and drummer Will Rigby, sprang. Bands worked fast in the ’60s, often at the insistence of labels that would drop them if they didn’t; The dB’s set out to do the same.
Recorded in NYC and London, Repercussion marked the debut of Scott Litt as producer. For a long stretch in the late ’80s and ’90s, Litt had the rep as a guy who would sand down a band’s edges as he polished up their sound (therefore, he was something of a divisive figure), but the dB’s had too much momentum and Litt was just getting started, so while larger-scaled and more refined, Repercussion didn’t squander the energies of the debut.
Some will perhaps be thrown by the horn section in the opening cut, Holsapple’s “Living A Lie,” but it’s the Rumour Brass (backers of Graham Parker) who are doing the blowing, and the cumulative effect isn’t that far from the sound of Squeeze at the time. The next track, “We Were Happy There,” also a Holsapple tune, reins it in a bit (the Rumour Brass making their exit) and delivers a solid serving of power pop with new wavy tension.
The enduring general assessment of the dB’s’ dual songwriting talents is that Holsapple was the more straightforwardly pop of the pair and that Chris Stamey was more inclined toward unusual structures and atmospheres. “Happenstance,” the first of two consecutive Stamey numbers on side one, reinforces this conclusion, moody but building to a slashing finale that’s wholly appropriate for the bitterness and borderline anger of the lyrics, which depict a soured relationship.
“From a Window to a Screen” slows the pace with moodier strum and twang, an appealing prelude to “Amplifier,” a Holsapple cut with an unrelenting hooky groove that was released as a single (and remixed for the post-Stamey third album Like This). Stamey’s “Ask for Jill” comes next and wraps up the side, infused with strangeness and sharp angles, but galloping out of the gate with enough power pop urgency that it served as the B-side for “Amplifier.”
Opening side two, Stamey’s “I Feel Good (Today)” is a dive into ’60s Brit psych-pop with a bit of swirling faux raga flavor. Not to be outdone, Holsapple’s “Storm Warning” adds some Spanish guitar moves to the equation, and then Stamey’s “Ups and Downs” arrives with a bounce that could raise the eyebrow of an English Beat fan, but without deliberately aping that sound.
The dB’s largely eschew the imitative. Repercussion’s closest exception is Holsapple’s “Nothing Is Wrong,” which is clearly modeled after Big Star circa Third, but with a sense of control that brings the song into the present with its freshness intact. Mostly though, this original incarnation of the dB’s honed a sound that proved influential, with Stamey’s “In Spain” a hyperactive blend of catchiness and stinging guitar leads.
“Neverland” closes the vinyl with a melodic sprint in classic style. The CD-digital bonus track “PH Factor” is a likably minor bit of vocal-less surf-spy business that fits the era in which Repercussion emerged, but at this far removed, is also sorta timeless. And come to think of it, timeless is a good way to describe the original lineup of the dB’s.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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