Reviewing Dr. Dog’s B-Room

These guys are nothing if not literal. Their new album is called B-Room (Anti-), and on the front of the CD there’s a picture of a door to a room, marked “B-Room.” The band is called Dr. Dog, and on the back of the CD there’s a picture of the band with a dog. Sadly, it doesn’t really get any more interesting or inspiring from there. The band’s people describe the record as, “In its purest form, a soul album.” Not really. It’s weird because Anti- is the sister label to Epitaph Records and, while its roster is diverse, it is also impressive (Bob Mould, Kate Bush, Billy Bragg, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds). But this is just banal in a horribly fashionable Grizzly Bear-meets-Bright Eyes sort of way. For a supposed soul record, there’s a distinct lack of that very thing. It feels like they wrote and recorded this thing in their sleep, and the results encouraged this writer to get some shut-eye too.