Stripped down to the core duo of singer and keyboardist Carly Comando and drummer Tom Patterson for their second album,
Slingshot Dakota have become indie pop miniaturists in a fashion that does their music few favors. Comando's fetching but pitch-poor vocals and her simple (not simplistic) electric keyboards are at times an odd fit with Patterson's assertive drumming: on songs like "South First" and "The Golden Ghost," his tendency towards thumpy overplaying threatens to overpower Comando's more delicate contributions, so that by song's end it seems as if she's shouting simply to be heard. Combined with Comando's occasionally anguished emo lyrics, this makes Their Dreams Are Dead But Ours Is the Golden Ghost the sort of album that palls by the time it's no more than halfway through. But the problem may not lie entirely within the band: Phil Douglas' near-invisible "place the mikes and push record" production style doesn't help, flattening the songs out even more than they already were. Indeed, it may be the fault of a bad mix that Patterson's drums are so overpowering. With a slightly larger band lineup (to balance out the sound and give Comando a more level playing field) and a more forgiving producer,
Slingshot Dakota would show more potential than this, but Their Dreams Are Dead But Ours Is the Golden Ghost is a frustrating mess. ~ Stewart Mason