Welcome to the Monkey House is the fourth studio album by American rock band The Dandy Warhols. The album was recorded between September 2001 and December 2002, and released on May 5, 2003 through record labelCapitol. The album was originally mixed by Grammy Award-winning soul music engineerRussell Elevado, but Capitol Records were unhappy with releasing it, instead opting for a more polished, synthpop-influenced mix by Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran. The original mix of the album was later released as The Dandy Warhols Are Sound in 2009. The album's lead single "We Used to Be Friends" was the theme song to the popular TV series Veronica Mars as well as its subsequent film adaptation. Two further singles were released from the album: "You Were the Last High" and "Plan A".
The album's title was inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's short story of the same name. The musical style of Welcome to the Monkey House was described by XRay Magazine as a "belligerent, snotty-nosed, speed-fueled romp through sinister electro punk, slightly corrupt melodic rock and skew-whiff handle of 80s glam-sodden pop, albeit refracted through a knowing noughties thrift store cool." Courtney Taylor-Taylor cited The Faint as a musical influence during the production of the album. The album's cover features a painting by Ron English, and is a prime example of the artist's signature mash-up style, featuring a banana half-exposed by a zipper down its peel in a reference to the iconic Andy Warholalbum cover for The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico.
Mix
The album was originally mixed by Grammy Award-winning soul musicengineer Russell Elevado, but the band's label at the time, Capitol Records, were unhappy with releasing it, and instead released a more polished, new wave-inspired mix by Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran. The Elevado mix was released as The Dandy Warhols Are Sound on the band's own Beat the World record label in 2009. In the same year, guitarist Peter Holmström stated the Nick Rhodes mix "was not the version I wanted released".
Release
Three singles were released from the album: "We Used to Be Friends" on April 23, 2003, "You Were the Last High" on July 28, and "Plan A" on November 24. "We Used to Be Friends" went on to become the theme music for the popular TV series Veronica Mars and its subsequent film adaptation.
Reception
The album was generally well-received critically. AllMusic wrote, "With their fifth album the band capitalizes on their pop sensibilities and even manages to turn their prior weaknesses into strengths, resulting in a collection of gloriously blank, cleverly stupid neo-new wave songs." Robert Christgau gave the album an A– rating, calling it "clever and droll but also hypnotic and mysterious". A negative review came from Pitchfork, which gave the album a low 3.3/10 rating and wrote "these songs highlight the poseur mentality and insincerity that paradoxically plagues and blesses The Dandy Warhols". Sunday Herald wrote "Sometimes over-indulgence can be fun, but Welcome to the Monkey House is simply too much."
Track listing
The alternate titles listed above are the song titles as printed on the back cover, disc and in the liner notes of non-U.S. editions of the album, apart from "The Last High", which was the credited title of "You Were the Last High" on U.S. pressings. ; Enhanced CD content The enhanced CD contains the short film The End of the Old as We Know It, written and directed by Courtney Taylor-Taylor, and a link to The Odditorium, a no-longer-active website where fans could "see band web casts, play games and download exclusive music and mayhem".
Personnel
The Dandy Warhols
Courtney Taylor-Taylor – lead vocals, guitar, production
