The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!

The Doleful Lions' 1998 debut, Motel Swim, was a fairly standard jangly guitar indie pop record, with little standing out other than the brilliant opening track, a tribute to the joys of Krautrock called "The Sound of Cologne." That song suggested that Doleful Lions leader Jonathan Scott had concerns beyond that of the average indie band, an idea brought to fruition by 1999's The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! Darker in tone and much more interesting than its predecessor, this album inhabits a subterranean world of obsessions, most notably an obsession with the sort of movies most often covered in Michael Weldon's Psychotronic magazine. Songs like "Driller Killer" and "Destroy All Monsters," as well as the title track, take their names from obscure cult horror films, and that type of imagery creeps into almost all of the songs. The nervous-sounding title track builds through an increasing sense of dread and strangeness before it explodes into an oddly hopeful and spirited chorus of the title phrase repeated endlessly for the rest of the song. (The fact that Scott can not only built a chorus around that title, but have it be the most instantly memorable and melodic moment on the entire album, is proof of a certain type of songwriting genius.) Other tracks stretch far beyond the three-minute standard, with the swirling instrumental "Sweet Driller Killer" (a reference to the Velvet Underground's live improvisation "Sweet Sister Ray"?) stretching languorously out for over seven. The Doleful Lions really found their voice with this album, a huge improvement over their largely pedestrian debut.