Dananananaykroyd – Hey Everyone

Dananananaykroyd take themselves about as seriously as their bizarre name suggests they might. Some have taken to referring  to their stompy, guitar-led melodic inventions as ‘fight pop’, although it’s hard to imagine fighting to this unless it involved doing so on a bouncy castle dressed as a Pokemon.  Hey Everyone! is  the Glasgow six-piece’s first studio album and predictably, it’s a little bundle of energy. Big guitars, talkative riffs, acrobatic drums (Dananananaykroyd have two drummers) and excitable breathless vocals, it’s a fairly straightforward formula from the outset – there are no surprises here.

An awful lot of Dananananaykroyd’s buzz seems to have been generated by the live experience they offer, they’re a tight-knit unit, a spectacle of unabashed crowd pleasers. It’s clear that an effort has been made to infuse much of this into the record and for the most part, a pretty convincing job is done. Gang vocals stand in for crowd interaction and a slightly unbalanced ‘live’ feel still clings to the production, despite the obvious gloss.

There’s definite tones of their contemporary British rock predecessors also, the happy-go-lucky vocal chorus of ‘Black Wax’ brings to mind A at their best, while the brash, impetuous guitar slinging is at times reminiscent of a more optimistic Hell is For Heroes or a fresher –smelling Hundred Reasons, Dananananaykroyd re-tread this ground with a distinctly post-modern dose of self-awareness and turn up all the more entertaining, bolder results as a result.

Hey Everyone blasts past in just over 45 minutes and in that short time it becomes abundantly clear that Dananananaykroyd are experts in their very particular field. It could be said that the sound lacks depth, that the album fails to move or explore in any particular direction, but if Hey Everyone is underdeveloped it’s definitely perfectly formed. What it lacks in innovation it attempts to compensate for in enthusiasm – and the enthusiasm that bellows from this record is almost boundless. Dananananaykroyd might be a one-trick pony, but it has to be said, it’s a pretty cool trick. It’s hard to not to like the happiest guy in the room, especially when he’s really seems to want you to join in, but the party can only go on for so long.

Hey Everyone is a hyperactive listen, slathered liberally with oversized guitars and peppered with moments of fidgety pop kicks and is sure to win the hearts of a hardcore of fans who have probably been waiting for something like this to come along since late 2003. For the rest of us this effort might just lack the finesse, if not the heart, to stay on play rotation for more than a week. A small dose of this might be a cheap thrill, but for a full length album too much of the same ends up a little bland. On the whole extremely likeable but ultimately, unfortunately a little forgettable.