I was surprised to hear that Bettie Serveert have been around for 15 years. "That's a long time," I said to myself. When I put some thought into the significance of those 15 years a different type of surprise quickly took over; more a vague panic than any type of surprise as such. Additional calculations revealed that I first heard Bettie Serveert on Dust Bunnies (their third album) as a freshman. In 1997. Nine years ago. Has the post-collegiate stupor and aversion to adult endeavour meant that I've missed out on something? Something like time? More likely than not I was/am asleep.
As bands go, "The Betties" are best described as reliable. Their first album, Palomine, is often billed as something of a college radio triumph. Subsequent albums were by most standards better, but they never really thought outside of the box, Serveert-wise. After an album of Velvet Underground covers and two more studio full lengths, we arrive at Bare Stripped Naked, an acoustic collection of eight new songs and four reworked favourites.
Impressive is how the band manage to sound quite unlike themselves without abandoning their identity to any great extent. Bettie Serveert not sounding like Bettie Serveert is unfortunately what also tends to disappoint about the album. Gone except in small measures is Peter Visser's overdriven SG, a hallmark of the Serveert Sound. On some songs, like the outstanding "Hell=Other People" and "Brain-Tag" it is hardly missed, but on less inspired coffeehouse numbers like "All the Other Fish" and "Painted Word," its absence is all the more conspicuous.
Presumably this is the point of a guitar band calling their album "Bare Stripped Naked." And what these songs offer, apart from demonstrating a different side to Bettie Serveert, is a long overdue showcase for Carol Van Dijk's, remarkable voice; nicotine-stained and cool. Hers is a largely underrated instrument in indie rock and is the real thematic thread on this album more than the lyrics or its musical style. Her tone is ver-satile and pressing, rugged and sensual, and if anything, it is reason alone to pay atten-tion to this album. Don't let Bare Stripped Naked be your introduction to Bettie Serveert; you'll need their early albums and a dorm room for that. Listen to it instead as a fan of a vastly underrated band, attempting to assert itself as a lasting presence in what is sadly a largely ephemeral musical landscape.
- Allan Lewis | 2006-10-02
