Send "The Dutchess and the Duke " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 On the Dutchess and the Duke's 2008 debut, Jesse Lortz exorcizes his demons. With songs about his bitterness toward his mother, and painfully self-hating lyrics like, "Don't tell me it's alright, 'cause everything inside is wrong with me," She's the Dutchess, He's the Duke hurts so good. With exposed-nerve sentiments married to raw acoustic melodies, it is music made by a damaged man (and his partner-in-crime, the smoky-voiced Dutchess Kimberly Morrison). It was also one of the most underrated albums of the year.Sunset/Sunrise finds Lortz in a much different place. A new father, he wrote much of the collection while his wife was pregnant. Anger, doubt, and resentment about his past is now fear, anticipation, and even a little bit of hope for his future. It is not, however, an album of domestic bliss or comfortable complacency. While She's the Dutchess matched style to substance, with minor-key Stones/Kinks grit and swagger to mirror the dark lyrics, Sunset/Sunrise finds the Seattle duo exploring murky, in-between places-- both musically and thematically. If a track has a slightly sunny energy or major-key twang, then its lyrics express sadness or, worse, icy ambivalence. "Let It Die" is the first song on the album to explicitly deal with impending fatherhood ("In the bed my woman lies sweetly/ With a love that I just can't see/ Inside there's a little child now/ With a heart and soul that's free"). It gallops like a cheerful sing-along, but following the description of his loving, pregnant wife is a chorus that intones how badly he wants to run away from her and the prison of domesticity. The only thing more devastating than what he's saying is how he's saying it-- set against a melody that should be a cozy, cascading love song....full text |
| Dustedmagazine |
| At best, Dutchess and the Duke’s Sunset / Sunrise is a record of deep regret. The beersy buddy campfire songs of their debut album have given way to a much starker reality, possessed of a revelatory sobriety that only comes after the fun drunk starts to fade away. “The sun comes up / I’m counting the days I got left” are the first words of opener “Hands.” The vibe is immediately different. Cocksucker blues have been replaced by Zombies dirges. A total downer, it’s more of an ending than a starter, like beginning a movie with the famous scene from Shane. They try to shake the harshed mellow a few times, but mostly with ambivalent results. R&B-inflected heartbeakers “When You Leave My Arms” and “I Don’t Feel Anything” try their hardest at Modern Sounds-era Ray Charles, but come off like high school dance also-rans. And the forced tambourine sing-along of “Let It Die” just doesn’t compute with the overall sentiment. It’s much better when they stick to the spooky fugue state on “Sunrise / Sunset,” complete with cartoon creepy groaning in the background and the threat of losing your soul. This unrest doesn’t come out of nowhere. “I Am Just a Ghost” helped wind down their first record with a jarring, dissonant, fade-to-black that was the real armageddon song on She’s the Dutchess, He’s the Duke. After that, the Hozac single took things straight back-to-basics. “Never Had a Chance” and B-side “Scorpio” were ripped straight from the basement tapes, splitting the difference between a moonshining Dylan and a candidly frank Jagger. No clouds around these songs: just a couple of fast, raucous one-takes that seemed to put the duo back in greener pastures...full text |
| Ventvox |
| The Dutchess and The Duke are an independent band that inspires me to listen to more classic rock. This inspiration does not come from the fact that The Dutchess and The Duke are masters at incorporating their influences but the fact that when I hear their music, I would rather opt to hear the originators and not some secondhand hacks attempt their spin on Sixties folk rock. The Dutchess and The Duke have a very limited palette of sound that they pilfer from, including “Flowers” era Rolling Stones, Dylan circa ’65 and the Mamas and the Papas. Whereas the aforementioned bands were innovators in every sense of the word, The Dutchess and The Duke offer nothing more than a pallid imitation; much like the chintzy cover bands that you would see play a local smoke filled dive on a Saturday night. Often times the cover band offers some charm in that setting, but you wouldn’t expect them to record an album of their originals despite their amazing instrumental prowess at two in the morning because the ensuing album would seem like amateur hour. The Dutchess and the Duke’s sophomore album, “Sunset/Sunrise” suffers from the same amateurish playing that would dominate a cover band’s foray into the recording studio. From the half-assed guitar playing to the abysmal lyrics, The Dutchess and The Duke misfire on all counts. “Sunset/Sunrise” sounds like a band that has expanded its sound but hasn’t bothered with learning their instruments. The sloppy playing on basic 1,4,5 chord progressions and weak vocals might be part of the problem. What was accomplished musically on this album would be akin to walking into a guitar store and hearing a student record his first licks of “Lady Jane” after a half hour lesson. While the basic musical prowess is absent, I will say the album is consistently awful....full text |
The Dutchess and the Duke lyrics
|
| |||||||
