Slick Dogs and Ponies, Louis XIV's sophomore album, is an uneven and unsatisfying effort. After 2005's The Best Little Secrets Are Kept, the San Fransico-based band became known for fuzzy guitars, fake English accents and lyrics filthy enough to make Soulja Boy blush.
Fans will be disappointed to find they have taken it down a notch with Slick Dogs; the pace is slower, guitars are equally matched with strings and they even dabble in a more serious side.
Guilt By Association"" starts off the album with stinging guitar licks and screeching wails reminiscent of Best Little Secrets. ""Air Traffic Control"" is a new sound for Louis but old for the rest of the world - it is unmistakably taken from David Bowie. An admittedly decent song, it begs for comparisons to ""A Space Oddity"" with its strings, themes of flight and vocals that sound as though they are radioed in.
""Misguided sheep"" is a bit misguided itself, sounding like a bland mash-up of Best Little Secrets. The catchy, teasing chorus and the frantic, energetic pace ""There's a Traitor in This Room"" moves makes it the most satisfying song on the album. The filthy lyrics (""Ass on the carpet / Your legs on the couch / And all you want is my love in your mouth"") and the infectious, flirtatious chorus, (""I can't be so sweet to you / Until I find the right excuse"") are classic Louis XIV. The bouncy ""Sometimes You Just Want To"" keeps the energy going and leads into the darker ""Tina."" ""Stalker"" then goes murkier, weaving synthesizers, clapping and breathy whispers into a tapestry of creepiness. Beginning and ending with the literal sound of swarming bees, ""Swarming of Bees"" ominously simulates the chaos of a swarm.
In ""Hopesick,"" Louis ditches their usual swagger for a more melancholy sound, and the results aren't pretty. Listeners glean a look into the deep life of leading man Jason Hill with the lyrics ""I need sleep, I need love / I need fun, I need girls."" The self-serious tone, meandering chorus and goofy made-up title are enough to make any rational person hit the ""skip"" button, but those who stick around are treated to an out-of-place ""A Day in the Life""-esque crescendo of screeching noise that makes one wonder if the swarm of bees has returned.
""Slick Dogs and Ponies"" starts out promising - sing-song vocals, playful strings and bells build up into a rocking crescendo.
Eventually, it wanders into ""Hopesick"" territory with three full minutes of mope-y instrumentals. The title track is rather symbolic of the entire album: partially fun and partially disappointing. The appeal of Louis XIV lies in their raw, catchy, cocky tracks that made up the majority of Best Little Secrets. With the darker and slower Slick Dogs, Louis looses sight of this and fills half the album with mediocre and forgettable tracks. The moral of the story is that Louis XIV needs to stick to what they do best - filthy, trashy, unadulterated 'rawk.'
