Search - Bettie Serveert :: Dust Bunnies

Hope they're still big in Holland!

B.A.S. | watford, herts United Kingdom | 02/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Listening to this album from the late 1990s in anticipation of their new one, it's difficult to see where Bettie Serveert went wrong. Compared to their first two excellent albums, Palomine and Lamprey, Dust Bunnies sounds alot rougher, with barely a keyboard in sight. There's more of a shuffley Velvet Underground rhythm to the slower tracks on the album, like Pork and Beans, but the opener, Geek, is one of the best grunge anthems you're likely to hear. It all compares very favourably with any of the guitar bands around today. And it's much more uplifting than the post-Radiohead guitar miserablism - that Bettie Serveert toyed with on Lamprey in 1996 - of bands like Doves. Why the Spin journalist thought Bettie Serveert were "second best" I don't really know. Musher, Co-Coward and Fallen Foster are some of the best compositions you'll hear in any genre, and all sung in Van Dijk's distinctive unadorned Dutch/American drawl for enhanced effect. Whatever did happen to Spin Magazine?"

Underrated band's underrated album

aarontsl | NYC | 12/14/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album is underrated by the "die-hard" Bettie Serveert fans, who, I am told, prefer "Palomine" the band's first album. I personally can't see why this is any less stellar than Palomine. Carol van Dijk consistently knocks out clever, poetic, touching lyrics in english, more impressive for it being her second language. Peter Visser continues to rock out engaging guitar melodies, harmonies and just plain noises. Together they really know how to write music. This album goes from thrashed out alt-rock anthems to light-hearted comical tunes to sweeping melancholic ballads, hitting only one false note on the way: I give it 4 1/2 stars, just shy of a five just because "Rudder", the song about the band that sells and consequently sells out, just rubs me the wrong way. (On the other hand, I never actually skip the track, so I might be wrong.) My personal favorite is "Misery Galore"; it makes it on many-a-mixtape I've made. Every once in a while I see this used for six bucks or less somewhere on St. Mark's Place and I think that's a steal. My one word of caution is that Carol's voice bothers some people, but that could go for almost ANY band with lyrics, so hear a sample before you run out and buy."

This album never fails to make me smile...

jenefur | Wisconsin | 03/08/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...from the beginning to the end, this record never fails to make me smile, and it is definitely worth checking out. it's just a really good rock record, and those are getting harder and harder to find these days."