That Dog

Retreat From the Sun (DGC)
by Barbara Restaino

That Anna Waronker, she’s such a hopeless romantic – singing about “wedding dreams and baby seats and family gatherings eternally.” That Dog‘s third album, Retreat From the Sun, is full of happy and sad pop songs about waiting for phone calls, crying, kissing, pinching cheeks, and carving initials in trees. Waronker’s voice, a cross between Liz Phair and Susanna Hoffs, is like a bad little puppy, giving you those puppy dog eyes after chewing up your favorite shoes. She even manages to sound sweet when singing “I don’t care if you don’t treat me like a lady/and I don’t care just sit there and don’t disobey me/mistress never tells a lie/would you love me gagged and tied.” Hey, can I help! The combination of gooey three-part harmonies, peppy piano and Petra Haden’s arty (albeit beautiful) violins skipping around the Maypole are a bit sickening after a while.

Her new songs, more personal and emotional than those on the first two albums, that dog. and Totally Crushed Out!,were originally intended for Waronker’s solo project, but the band decided there was room to put that dog. into them. And so, the band evolved from a quirky, pop-punk band into a more mature Go-Go’s with bite. (Actually, Waronker collaborated with former Go-Go Charlotte Caffey on “Ordinary Girl,” the theme song to the television show Clueless .) Though mostly filled with enthusiastic melodies, some songs, like “Never Say Never,” “Gagged and Tied,” and “Annie,” contain an interesting edge created by ethereal violins weaving in and out of distorted guitars. “Hawthorne” is a good slower song – it starts out slow, but then gets incrementally faster. But it still doesn’t make up for the la la la la la’s and lyrics like “Every time I try/I cry… /cry, cry, cry, cry/I cry over you” on the song, “Every Time I Try.”