Dressy Bessy

By Jessica King

I had high hopes for Dressy Bessy.

A Denver-based indie pop quartet with a female singer and a cute sense of retro style, Dressy Bessy had definite potential.

The band’s songs combine syrupy doses of ’60s radio hits with low-fi ’90s garage music.

Unfortunately, Dressy Bessy puts a tad too much of the former into the mix with “Little Music.” The songs, many only two minutes long, lack emotion, depth and skill. They remind me of pink Peeps, the fluffy, sugary candy puffs made in the shape of chicks.

The band members rip-off The Beach Boys, but it sounds slightly more modern. Dressy Bessy began when singer and main songwriter Tammy Ealom met drummer Darren Albert in a record store in 1997.

“Little Music,” released by Kindercore, is Dressy Bessy’s third full length album. It is a collection of singles and other spare songs recorded in the last five years.

Named after a Playskool doll, Dressy Bessy makes shallow, simple songs about boys and girls, but its target audience seems to be men and women, a strange conflict of style and goals that may prove to be the band’s downfall.

Ealom presents an over-adorable view of the world, a world where the biggest tragedy is being rejected by the cute boy.

“Lipstick, he wore it on his collar/ As she kissed him/ A little bit like me.”

Ealom’s flat but chirpy voice coats the often repetitive melodies with colorful sugar granules. Some critics have called the sound “gritty,” but they fail to realize sugar can go down with some difficulty.

On some songs, the guitars rise above the uninspired sweetness that permeates the album. John Hill, also of the Apples In Stereo, creates the catchy, fuzzed-out melodies with his guitar. Hill continues to do double duty as guitarist for both bands.

Albert drums with enduring simplicity in 4/4 time. Ealom’s lyrics are simple as well.

“Sunny/ Where are you going?/ You got me running all up town.”

In the end, “Little Music’s” sugary recipe will satisfy only a few.