The Donnas – Gold Medal
Atlantic, 2004
1. I Don’t Want To Know (If You Don’t Want Me)
2. Friends Like Mine
3. Don’t Break Me Down
4. Fall Behind Me
5. Is That All You’ve Got For Me
6. It’s So Hard
7. The Gold Medal
8. Out of My Hands
9. It Takes One To Know One
10. Revolver
11. Have You No Pride
Out with the old, and in with the new; there’s a lot to that statement which applies to The Donnas. Gold Medal is one of the first releases to emerge in the Dual Disc format, with a CD on one side and a DVD on the other. Donna A. has put down her guitar and is focusing solely on her vocal stylings. Most influentially, the Ramones feel of the original Donnas work has nearly completely disappeared, replaced with a lot of jangly guitars and pop sensibility.
The Donnas’ last release, Spend The Night, was also a change from their previous sound. Charging away from punk and more into some power riffs and hard-rock flavor, it blew life into the generic garage punk that constantly flowed from the four women. However, rather than stay with this direction, it seems that The Donnas are in a state of experimentation and flux. While that’s not always a negative, it has the potential to switch up an established fanbase with completely unpredictable results.
Gold Medal immediately sounds more polished than its predecessors (thanks to the talents of Butch walker), and immediately sounds more like a girly pop garage band than anything they have recorded to this point. There’s nothing wrong with this, as it’s clear that the girls have mastered the pop sensibilities of their Ramones idols. However, it’s so far removed from any resemblance of punk that it’s a wonder whether old Donnas fans will look to stick around.
It’s also a look at a much more mature set of women in general. Long gone are the days of the Donnas singing about partying and boys; these have been replaced with the typical female anthems of relationship troubles and heartache. This doesn’t mean the Donnas have grown up to become “whining, bitchy women,” however; all of this is explored in a pop realm that doesn’t harp on the message. Instead, it exists as a backdrop, unassuming and relatively harmless.
If one is just plain searching for some great pop rock, however, there’s enough to make a Cheap Trick fan wet themselves with joy. The first track, “I Don’t Want To Know,” bursts out with some nice harmonies and an immediate urge to bounce around. It’s a trend that continues throughout the disc, with “Fall Behind Me” and the particularly biting “Revolver.” Truly, there’s no shortage of hand-clap anthems and outright fun, musically; careful attention to the lyrics might make one temporarily cock one’s head to the side and wonder why such venom is coupled with such happy music, but it’s easy to shake off and return to rocking out.
There aren’t any particularly awful songs on the album at all; there’s a range from mediocre to good throughout, with nothing sticking out too high on the most-excellent scale either. “The Gold Medal” is a definite change mid-disc, featuring some bouncy ’70s kitsch that one can only love or hate. But other than that, there’s almost an unholy uniformity to the sound and writing throughout the album. It’s funny, because the entire disc is a bit different than the typical Donnas catalog, yet it still seems like they’re not taking any chances within this new area they have decided to investigate. It might sound creative and different for the Donnas’ realm, but compared to the rest of the universe of power-pop, Gold Medal doesn’t particularly stick out as anything special.
In the end, the Donnas changed it up some, and it sounds just fine. Were they ever incredible songsmiths to begin with? Perhaps not, so it may be more correct to rate them on pure enjoyment factor. Even with the heavier lyrics, Gold Medal might be one of the most fun albums to jam along with so far this year. It’s almost syrupy at times with its pop sound and might lend the punkier devotees of the band to turn the other direction and run, but the crowd that is just looking for some good-time music might find this a worthy buy. Just don’t plan on listening to it in your car, as the Dual Disc format is thicker than regular CDs and has been known to get stuck in some front-loading devices.
