Reviews for 'The Lonely World Of...'

Splendidezine.com
We don't usually write big long praiseworthy reviews of reissues, especially if there's already a review of the first release of the album on file. However, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Theodore Defosse had an off day when he wrote our original review of The Dudley Corporation's The Lonely World of the Dudley Corporation, and that the band richly deserves a reassessment in these pages. Evidently the folks at Flameshovel Records decided the same thing, because they saw fit to sign the band and give this, their debut album, US distribution.
And hooray for that, as The Lonely World is bloody marvellous. Equally rocking and thought-provoking, this Irish trio plays an addictive, complex yet catchy brand of pop that simultaneously engages your brain and makes you want to nod your head. Each time you listen to the album, a new facet or three will leap out at you -- like, "Hey, I never really noticed that steel guitar part in that song", or "Goddamn, that's a fantastic bass line", or "Wow, this song really makes no structural sense -- how come it sounds so damn good?"
Built upon the complex, borderline mathy work of guitarist Dudley, these songs are tricky little constructions, layering part over part but never losing sight of each tune's central hook. Drummer Joss is a marvel, filling up space in all the right places, and letting loose with rapid-fire machine-gun fills whenever necessary. Bassist Pip is the glue that holds it all together, with a chunky, hefty tone that locks in with the bass drum in heavier moments, explores melodically during gentler segments, and pops its head out of the mix when you least expect it.
In general tone, the Corporation recall no one so much as the late, lamented San Diego spazz-jazz-pop band Heavy Vegetable, as well as leader Rob Crow's equally excellent Thingy. "One in a Squillion" is particularly emblematic of this resemblance, with its eerie vocal harmonies on the chorus (that simply reiterate the word "play"), jagged yet melodic guitar riffs and bass line that sounds as if it was ripped straight out of an XTC tune. Shades of the Wedding Present appear in the churning guitars of "A Song Against the City", and in the group's quieter moments, such as "Stupid" and "Quick", they sound a bit like a less-orchestrated version of Scotland's Delgado's. On closer inspection, it's revealed that the swooning cello line that runs through "Quick" is actually played by The Delgado's' Alan Barr, which makes the comparison even more plausible.
Remarkably, the band is adept both at rocking out in spazz-pop fashion ("Divil the Bit", "God Only Knows" and playing it mellow and gentle ("Quick", R.K.P."), as well as mining the fertile territory in between. Nothing about either sonic extreme feels even remotely forced -- every style the band attempts here works well. They also know how to get their point across effectively and quickly; most of these songs will blow your mind in well under three minutes.
All this, and Dudley even has something to say for himself. The lovesick "One in a Squillion" begins with the words "Trace your outline in my bed / Place my hands where you'd lay your head / The cotton's cold and I can only hold / You in my memory". In "A Song About the City", Dudley rants "When I learn, I'll start to attack / This city that built me, this city that laughs / At every plan I've ever tried to make". His voice is elastic and supple, and he's eminently capable of expressing intensity and passion without resorting to screaming (which adds impact to the moments when he actually does scream ).
Basically, this is a fantastic record that should not go unnoticed by US indie rock fans. As with practically any band, you can point to the Dudleys' influences easily enough, but they play with such confidence as to render those comparisons practically moot. A literate, lyrical, kick-ass rock band who are also masters of dynamics and tension and release, The Dudley Corporation have put out one of the more compelling debuts I've heard this year. Buy this one, and look out for their name in the future -- I have the feeling they're going to be pretty popular.
-Jeremy Schneyer

Lost at Sea
There�s something bubblin� in Dublin (thanks Jay-Z!) These Irish boys kick off their domestically released LP with "Doh ray mi assholes" and promptly conjure up early Pavement both instrumentally and vocally thereafter. Start-stop guitars are the name of the game, but not with so much math precision as Braid, and heartfelt and wide ranged vocals are ripped from the throat, but with way more effect than fellow pub-dweller Bono. No Irish stereotypes meant to be perpetuated. The album originally was released in 2001 but was brought to America in 2002 by Chicago�s Flameshovel Records. Recorded at the Chemikal Underground Studio in Glasgow, where Songs:Ohia worked in recent years, the production offers a very full sound for a trio. The Dudley Corporation�s songs often switch from slow and lazy rock that is slightly great to frenetic pop that is even greater ("Stupid"). Sometimes they lope along in 6/8 time as they switch from soft to loud without even a trace of emo ("Divil the Bit") and sometimes they sway along as acoustic numbers full of lush violins ("Quick") or even the magical instrument known as the saw ("Hed") spew forth. Any which way you take it, The Dudley Corporation make energetic and creative rock and roll that pays just enough attention to conventions while borrowing heavily from the greats of indie rock, but still manages to stand on its own. 
- Jonah Flicker

Lumpen
Dublin, Ireland birthed this sensitive rock band with a sense of humor a couple of years ago, and Lone World is their first effort at capturing the unstable molecules of what they call 'Mamrock' (don't ask me). Whatever Mamrock's shady origins, the end results are superlative listening. Mature, well-produced and with the ability to rock out when they need to (think early Cure), The Dudley Corp will-prediction alert-reclaim the title for Ireland's rock and roll. And this band does not sound out of place on the Flameshovel tip, not a bit
-Cowboy Joe Collier

Popmatters.com
OK, heads down again, rockers. It's time to plunge ahead (again) into Eternal Recurrence, that noisy wheel that routinely spits out nice chunks of reconstituted pop sounds every few years. Digesting backwards and tossing forwards, it's the way creativity works, how Now Sounds are nudged out of the old box. So we have the Dudley Corporation, a Dublin power-trio that has balled up the melancholy sentiments and noisy dynamics of the Wedding Present (circa 1991) and tossed it off to us in the form of the excellent new LP The Lonely World of the Dudley Corporation. They call it "Mamrock" but you know you've heard it before. But remember that in 1991, the Wedding Present was regularly accused of recycling the larynx of Joy Division and the attitude of the Smiths to spin something utterly unoriginal. Yet, the Weddoes' Seamonsters is one of the finest albums I've ever heard, and this lonely world of the Dudley Corporation is a scintillating variation of exactly that sort of sound. Eternal recurrence, I love it.
The Corpo -- as the Dudley Corp. is called in impolite company -- know their strengths. Guitarist/singer Dudley Colley has a creamy, whispery, throaty voice that thrusts itself up into tenor territory when the emotion requires it, and he tunes his guitar to the same alternately bracing'n'relaxing sound. Bassist Pip Moore knows how to attack his thick strings for that noisy momentum, and how to nimbly settle into the melody on slower numbers. And Joss Moorkens! This drummer rivals the Weddoes' Simon Smith in the way he suddenly shoves some serious rapid-fire noise in your face as often as he's allowed.
Recorded at Glasgow's famous indie-charmer Chem19 Studio, all of the tracks on Lonely World have a full, warm, detailed sound, and they fall into two distinct categories: slow, and fast. I like the fast ones. Luckily, the album opens with one of 'em, "Score", which has a funny opening line ("Doh ray mi asshole") and a bitter reference to an old Au Pairs tune in the lyrics ("D'you get the letter? / Did it make you feel better?"). Other great fast ones include "God Only Knows", whose speedy rumble hints at either woozy carnal decadence or kept sexual fantasies ("You dance inside her and you wake up in sweat / But she's never there when you open your eyes"), and the wonderfully noisy "Divil the Bit", which turns revolutionary ardour and generational angst into lust ("And I'll start a million fights for you / And make you want my best ideas / And take me home"). A bit of crumpled-sheet candour propels "Slowed in Motion" into a quick (under two minutes!) stratosphere of communion ("Cold, but I don't care / Then you turn, kiss me, and set me off"). Great tunes, all.
Still, the slow ones have their charms, and there's something really endearing about Dudley Colley's voice throughout. Cello from the Delgado's' Alan Barr gives the meandering and almost dirge like "Quick" an atmospheric calm, and again the lyrical plot happens entirely in bed ("Then she asks me to be her blanket / I pull her closer and watch her sleep"). The two mournful closing tracks are quite striking. "Hed" has a weepy coupla minutes where Dudley Colley moans in a Morrissey stylee about an apparently passive-aggressive break-up scene, but the musical saw (I think that's what it is) and banjo create a genuinely maudlin atmosphere, and the coda (where band members sing "I've had my heart ripped out again" over and over) is both over-the-top and quite memorable. Finally, "The Out Song" is a beautiful closer, with aw-shucks jangly guitars, naked love poetry, and some heart-rending chanting mixing with a rising tide of guitar noise.
On the whole, The Lonely World of the Dudley Corporation is sombre, noisy, and poignant. But hardly lonely. Many of the songs are bedtime scenes, with Dudley himself staring at his sleeping mate or sexing it up, which gives him a leg up on his truly lonely forebears David Gedge and Morrissey. I can't tell whether the anonymous women who pass through Dudley's bed have dissed him terribly, or he's just yet another guy who Can't Love. But all of the songs hint at a sense of grandeur and melancholy, and my most favourite moment on the album is the medley of "She Falls" and "A Song Against the City", an apt condensation of their art into a convenient pair. "She Falls" puts an old break-up into geographic context with the enigmatic couplet "All those tears / Welcome home", which stretches and echoes in your head until the wonderful explosion of "A Song Against the City", a noisy rant where Dudley ripps down a metropolis (Dublin?) with righteous abandon: "I'll pull it apart, I'll tear off its face / And watch it kick and scream and plead / The ambulance will go mee maw mee maw mee maw mee maw...". In fact, "Song Against the City" is by far the album's highlight, and you gotta wonder if its sense of lusty anger -- political anger, by my lights -- is what can motivate this band to truly great art. Let's hope so: word on the street is that the Corpo are back in the studio to record their second album. In the meantime, buy this one. It's really quite good.
-Mark Desrosiers

Ink 19
Refreshing, hyper imaginative noise pop from Dublin, The Dudley Corporation is one of the single most compelling bands to come along in some time now. They regularly get a lot of Pixies and The Wedding Present comparisons thrown at them, but they really don't sound like anyone else out there, instead carefully carving out some weird indie place all of their own. Stop/start dynamics, frantic dynamics, and those layered, strange ballads of theirs all make for an album far larger than the sum of its parts, on which no amount of indie pop trickery can hide the fact that this all boils down to some amazing songs, plain and simple. Their super funny, smug lyrics defy categorization and transcends mere wit to stand out as truly moving, strong narratives -- and the music only serves to underline this considered, crafted duality. The best noise pop you've never heard.
-Stein Haukland

Action Attack Helicopter
This is kind of a low-fi rock sound that grows on you, and actually I've heard a lot worse. The mellow guitar rock that, at times, soars to quite complete songs is refreshing to hear instead of rap metal/death metal that I usually have the honour to review. The Dudley Corporation really reach their sound on the outstanding track "Stupid," and I enjoyed it with each listen. It kind of sounds like Coldplay on the next track "She falls" and that's not a bad comparison in my book. All in all, this is good album, and worth your purchase. I could really get into this album. Did I just call this an album? I am showing my age but really, this is some good, mellow stuff that kind of rocks now and then.

All Music Guide
Dublin-based band the Dudley Corporation has been called the salvation of Irish rock and with the American release of their 2001 debut, The Lonely World of the Dudley Corporation, they have a crack at conquering the world as well. The album was recorded at Chemikal Underground in Glasgow and was released in fall 2002 on the U.S. label Flameshovel. Combining the discordant repetition of Sonic Youth and the off-kilter melodies of Stephen Malkmus and Polvo's Ash Bowie, the band offers a rollicking, "that's what was good about the '90s" album of noise pop. The Lonely World progresses from bolstering math rock through a land of watery ballads and ends with a handful of triumphant, Mogwai-like slow-burn end songs. Openers "Score" and "One in a Squillion" utilize the Weezer-like falsetto and Swirlies-style build-ups of noise and brash drums. The stop-start rock falls into ironic balladry like "She Falls" and "A Song Against the City," the highlight of this song type being "Quick," which features cello by Alan Barr of the Delgado's. The slow drum intro of the finale, "The Out Song," recalls the straight-man setups of Bedhead, launching into a guitar-swelching soar into the last notes. With a good U.S. indie pastiche and Dudley Colley's excellent, soft yearning vocals, they could easily become a staple of the world noise pop scene.
- D. Carr

Action Man Magazine
I have a sweater in my closest that was a gift that I didn�t like but kept so as not to hurt the giver�s feelings. You know the kind � you�re not sure what it goes with, but it looks okay. It�s warm and does the job on a blustery winter afternoon. Nothing special. You wouldn�t wear it to a party or on a first date. I said my thank you, folded it up and put it away.
Laundry day came and typically I had nothing to wear but a comfy pair of jeans and the sweater. Ok, it�ll do, I thought, and over my head it went. Hmmm. Kind of comfy. With lipstick and a pair of earrings, not so bad looking. As the wind gusts and snow flurries, this sweater has become a staple for comfort and security. It�s warm and makes the day less foreboding.
Bad analogy, but it works for The Dudley Corporation. The Lonely World is the Dublin trio�s first CD and it�s hard to make out. In fact, the opening track, �Score,� sounds like you started in the middle of a song. You�ll stick with it if only out of curiosity � where exactly are they going with this?
Hurried and spacey, stop and go, fast and slow, awkward and beautiful; this sweater wears well. Take a closer look at the weave � for three guys The Dudley Corporation are creatively adept at layering. The sound is both delicately loving and passionately rhythmic. There is a lot of care in The Lonely World. The lyrical stitching can be a little weak in parts, but when the knitting holds together, as with �Quick� and �R.K.P,� the song is lovely and warm.
The Dudley Corporation has been described as sweet � like mulled apple cider, curled up on the sofa with your dog at your toes and that sweater on your back. The winter won�t be so lonely.
- Carol Harrison

Amplifier
They're producing more and more musical genres every day, so maybe schizophrenic indie pop has already been patented.  If not, Dudley Corporation should stake their claim to it, because it's the perfect description for their frenetic sound.  They've digested a lot of music and spit it back in a new, blended form without losing any of their pop sensibilities.  Songs start slow and steady before the guitar rushes ahead and the drum fires off round after round.  The slower tracks - "She Falls" comes to mind - are the nicest if you're a sap like me, but Wedding Present-inspired numbers like "Slowed in Motion" are worth noting.  There's a fair amount of Pavement here, but mostly there's Dudley Corporation.
- Kali Holloway

Mundanesounds.com
The odds are clearly stacked against this album. First of all, its mere appearance is rendered an anticlimax by the notorious delays that occur when albums from the United Kingdom are licensed to American labels. This album's already a year and a half old in the Dudley Corporation's native Scotland, so even if the band were to travel to America to promote it, they've probably already gotten tired of performing these songs live. Hell, by the time I found out about fellow Scots Ballboy's promising debut Club Anthems, the group already had another album in the can. Second of all, this album comes along at a time when, at least in this country, taking cues from stalwart American indie-rock bands of the mid-nineties is beyond pass�. Because of such, UK bands like Spraydog, Urusei Yatsura, and Seafood, all of whom take our old tricks and do them in a more tuneful, more earnest, and arguably better manner, see their records sink like deadweight's the minute they're thrown into the American market. Therefore, there's not much hope to be had for an album that sounds like Lou Barlow writing lyrics on top of Heavy Vegetable songs. The same thing that I said about Christiana's Fatigue Kills applies here: yes, it's all been done before, but rarely quite this well. Plus, this album's even BETTER than Christiana's, so you REALLY need to heed my advice this time!
Every song on this album concerns itself with either a relationship being broken or a relationship being put back together. Fortunately, Dudley (the singer, songwriter, and guitarist whom this band is named after) finds a sensible middle ground between Lou Barlow's suffocating self-pity and David Edge's uncomfortable erotic detail. The album benefits from masterful sequencing: just when the album's lovelorn shtick makes you want to stuff your head inside an oven, a trio of optimistic, lovey-dovey songs provides welcome relief during the album's second half. Of course, this being The Lonely World of the Dudley Corporation, our protagonist ends up getting his "heart ripped out again," to quote the closing mantra of penultimate track "HED," by record's end. There are very few gaps of silence between these short songs, and many of them are grouped together according to key. This produces an effect in which, if you're not paying attention to the CD player, songs begin to blend into each other. "A Song Against the City" sounds like a speedier climax to the previous ballad "She Falls," and the sweet ballad "R.K.P." sounds like a comedown from the previous thrasher "Slowed in Motion." The sequencing gives this album a strong thematic consistency, while keeping the songs from sounding samey or indistinct.
In album opener Score, Dudley compares his attitude toward a vaguely defined antagonist to that of a bored, unrehearsed musician: its greeting "Do-re-mi, assholes" is nothing short of classic. The vocals switch from listless mumbles to falsetto sighs, but the jittery music refuses to mirror the lyrics' apathy. Beats are shaved off the meter seemingly at random, and verse/chorus/verse is abandoned for a musical tangent that crams three distinct and memorable guitar riffs into forty seconds. The Heavy Vegetable influence becomes most apparent in moments like this, when musical ideas are announced and then discarded with such reckless abandon. "One in a Squillion" finds Dudley reminiscing, unable to accept the fact that his woman left him. His off-key warbling shifts into a strangled, powerful yelp at precisely the right moment, and he inserts a surprisingly dexterous guitar solo in the middle of the song. Dudley's subsequent plea for reconciliation in "Divil the Bit" becomes extremely urgent during the song's chorus, when he struggles to catapult his voice above Joss' machine-gun drum rolls. "Stutter" is a reinforcement of the lyrical ideas of "One in a Squillion," but this time delivered in the second-person, and adorned with some delicious slide guitar playing. On "Stupid," Dudley admonishes himself to wear his heart on his sleeve, regardless of who it alienates, during a climax of grinding guitars and double-kick drums that sounds like Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch singing atop Metallica's "One."
"The Small Hours" is the album's bleakest song; in it, Dudley begins the night getting drunk in order to work up the nerve to call his ex. He fails, of course, and spends the rest of the night masturbating and puking. The song's so pretty and bouncy, though, that you won't notice how depressing the subject matter is unless you read the lyric sheet. On "Quick," Dudley is joyful at the prospect of falling asleep with his woman, his voice almost drowning in a sea of strings, bells, and accordion. "God Only Knows" is another Wedding Present-style strummer, whose lyrics describe a couple slowly growing disillusioned with its surroundings. By the next song, "HED," the couple turns its disillusionment towards each other, bringing the album full circle thematically. The appropriately named "Out Song" ends the album on a disarmingly sweet note, with Dudley vowing to protect and intercede on the behalf of a troubled girl. It peaks with a noisy, shambolic guitar solo that would make Pavement's Scott Kannberg proud were he ever to hear it.
If you're feeling down in the dumps this holiday season, The Lonely World of the Dudley Corporation will serve as the perfect tonic. If you program the CD to play only its fast songs, you'll have the perfect soundtrack to slam-dancing your broken heart away. If you program the CD to play only its slow songs, you'll have the perfect soundtrack to moping about and dwelling in your heartbreak. I guarantee you, though, that if you choose either option, you'll eventually want to hear the other songs because they're all wonderful. Listening to this album in its entirety is really the only way that one can appreciate the nuances of Dudley's song writing; for a guy with such a one-track mind, he's awfully capable of keeping my interest. It also helps that his rhythm section rocks harder than both Sebadoh's and the Wedding Present's ever did. In short, buy this record now and thank me later.
- Sean Padilla

GeekAmerica.com
A youthful Neil Young hangs out with Pavement for a while before writing some acoustic based pop songs and moving into some Death Cab for Cutie inspired numbers. Not bad if you get my drift, if you don't then just pretend and pick up this album.. I am unsure if this band is Scottish... they recorded there, but the vocals don't seem to have an accent. Well worth a buy and more than a few listens.
- GC

www.iiizine.com
after i listened to "the race" from flameshovel i was excited to hear this band. the dudley corporation hails from the UK and this is their first full length. i'm quite happy that they decided to release this to the US. the band has such a different style than any of the bands that are floating around the US's mainstream. the cover and cd art is just as eclectic as the style of flameshovel records seems to be, even the music is artsy. "the lonely world of the dudley corporation" starts off with a great track called 'score' and with the coolest line i've ever heard: 'do-re-me-assholes.' the album continues humbly along with a pleasing and rhythmic song called 'one in a squillion.' as i continued to listen i got a feeling of a museum or something very fragile, i think this is really what you could call that 'artsy feel.' after listening to it more and more i realized that there's a lot to the band. the album is in no way bland, but has its low and high points. one of the tracks that stood out the most to me was 'the small hours.' it was a little faster and a bit harder (which isn't their style but great to hear). the talent of this band is amazing, and they're only a 3 piece! the album flows with emotion through 14 striking tracks. this band is one of the most unique indie bands i have ever listened to. the lyrics are interesting and weird (they have a lot of references to relationships but not in the sense that you would think), and the music is very mellow for the most part. the album truly expresses what greatness comes from heartfelt music.
- Adam Mathews

Oceanfree.net
A tight rocking Dublin three piece, The Dudley Corporation display a musical wit and invention way beyond that of most heads down rockin' trios. This album was recorded in Glasgow independent Chemikal Underground's studio, and by their own admission, they have soaked up music onto every one of the 24 tracks available to them.
So the album explores not only their very loveable take on three chord art pop, but takes in beautiful, heartbroken reveries like "She Falls" and "God Only Knows", and utilises cellos (including one played by a Delgado), saws, horns and all sorts of musical lunacy, one minute happy/sad, one minute LOUDLOUDLOUD, the next breaking into the pop wall of noise. A band unafraid to be clever, fun, imaginative and irresistibly loveable all at the same time. Great.
Any band that opens their debut album with the words "Do re me assholes' is all right by me anyway.
- Paul Fogarty

Dublin Event Guide
After contributing a couple to the world of split 7 inches, and inspired by the decision of labelmates Joan Of Arse to go and record in Chicago with Steve Albini, it was time for a new recording environment. The Dudley headed for the Chemikal Underground studios in Glasgow where Songs:Ohia had recorded. The result is a coherent debut from Pip, Dudley and Joss that has many highlights. There's a Wedding Present rock-out in 'Slowed In Motion' and a beautifully tender 'Quick' which includes wonderful cello by Alan Barr (moonlighting member of the Delgado's). Then there's the lilting 'RKP'.
Lyrically, the Dudley's world seems to be a pretty lonely one. Indeed, 'One in a Squillion', 'Stutter', 'Quick', 'The Out Song' and 'Hed' all seem to concern unrequited love. 'Stupid' has a clever way with words "You'll chase me out of your weddings/you'll chase me out of your birthdays/ But I'll run riot at your funeral/Cos your ghost can't haunt me there", while any album with the opening lyrics of "Doh ray me assholes" may not be heading for daytime radio but will certainly bury it's way into other hearts. Highlight, though, is the aforementioned and saw-laden 'Hed' with a quite brilliant reprise of "I've had my heart ripped out again". It and the final 'The Out Song' show that the Dudley's are at their most effective in the latter part of the album, when they take their feet off the accelerators and let their emotions take over.
An album with many moments of raw glory. Check out the wonderful vinyl version as well.
- Dave Roberts

Godsend
The debut record from Ireland's DUDLEY CORP is 14 tracks of sometimes-reckless, other times heart-wrenching post-indie-rock pop. Recalling both American indie stalwarts like PAVEMENT and the reflective mid-period laments of RADIOHEAD even, DUDLEY combine myriad other influences in their oddly schizo musical brew. 'The Lonely World' rocks with stop-start abandon in tracks like 'God Only Knows', which could give stuff like the STROKES a run for their money with the right marketing push. Good, solid stuff that proves that rock isn't dead at all.

Hot Press
"Do Re Me Assholes". Full marks for funny and effective ways to open your debut album to Dudley Colley. The Dudley Corporation, or The Corpo if you're feeling affectionate, have a remarkable grasp of breezy guitar pop.
On initial listens, all the good cards are held in the dynamics - clever sudden bursts of machine gun drumming from Joss Moorkens and raucously constructed arrangements from Colley and Pip Moore. The slow burners reveal themselves in time, most remarkably on 'Quick' - a delicate love song lovingly arranged with a cello contribution from Alan Barr of The Delgado's and soft impassioned vocals from Dudley. Unlike many other 3 pieces of their ilk, the Corpo know exactly how to merge humour with killer lines and dark pathos, unlike the contrived, meticulously studied wackiness that characterises one too many a young bunch of noiseniks.
The Lonely World Of The Dudley Corporation may have been committed to tape at the Chemikal Underground owned Chem19 facility in Glasgow - a recording Mecca for many a local band, but it's as far removed from Glaswegian indie schmindie clich� as you can get. The Corpo world is as lovely as it is lonely - and a short spell of solitary confinement there will do you no harm.
- Eamon Sweeney

Buy or Die (Japanese website)
The Dudley Corporation which finishes the debut Album above expecting. Whether with the Single average guitar Band class when how you think, with this full Album there being a capability, one listening it just does you can understand the guitar Band which had the original tea which it will be secure. But the POP tune the ?? there being a part which gives, there is about to make the ear attract and hears and answers and has become sufficient contents. If to understand it compares easily, the kind of sound which sprinkles the Laeto ???? to the running impression of the Superchunk is done when with, you probably will say? Directly perhaps, this Album which is recorded at the studio of the Glasgow Chemical Underground, it is not picked up to the media, but the feverish fan is acquired, securely that it keeps making the circumstance which large it keeps breaking it guarantees you are not wrong. Privately best one of this year it became the Album.

Limerick Leader
Place in CD player, press play and Wow!! It doesn't get much better than this. It's been such a long time since a band has made a sound half as exciting as this. If The Strokes are the salvation of the American music scene then thank God for The Dudley Corporation, who stand shoulder to shoulder with them. This Dublin band could be about to save us from Oasis and their legion of naff imitators. This is an absolutely powerful assault on the senses. Only The Strokes have made a record as instantaneously thrilling in 2001. The Dudley Corporation sound like Pete Shelley from the Buzzcocks fronting The Wedding Present. This is classic indie-pop with hypnotic melodies, choruses filled with jangly guitars and all the sugar-coating that goes with it. They come from the same school as Pavement, The Pixies, Deus and the aforementioned Wedding Present. The poptastic sound of all things indie is not dead, it just hasn't been done this well in years.
- Alan Jacques

Irish Times
The latest document to emanate from Dublin's swelling rock underground, The Lonely World Of The Dudley Corporation follows an alternate pop route, packed with noise, attrition, acrid wordplay and remarkable rat-a-tat drumming. Recorded at the Chemikal Underground label's Glasgow-based Chem19 studio, this power-trio's debut finds them laying on the complex, edgy, stop-start rushes without becoming too convoluted to jettison their tunes. Out of this frantic compression spring such delights as Score, switching from languid Pavement-y grooves to metal breakdowns and syringed with very fine singing from Mr. Dudley himself. One In A Squillion sports elegant backing coos, fancy hardcore music glitches, buoyant guitar jangles and a classic rock solo moment. And The Delgado's' Alan Barr pops in to weave delicious cello through the appeasing mellow intimacy of Quick. Super-smart stuff. 4/5
- Leagues

dSide
Maniacally inventive pop.

Kaboom
Welcome to "The Lonely World Of The Dudley Corporation", the band's debut LP packed with snappy, quirky songs that rock. It's a delightful album.
The Corpo burst right out of the CD player and into your ears from the start, opening with three of the best songs on the album, "Divil the Bit" in particular is marvellous. Elsewhere "The Small Hours" and "Slowed in Motion" both merit a mention for their goodness. When the Dudley Corporation hit the mark, which is most of the time, they hit it right on the nose.
You may not return from your trip into "the Lonely World of the Dudley Corporation" as soon as you might have planned as these great songs will surely convince you to stay and keep the band company for a while. 4/5
- Niall de Buitlear

Indiepages.com
After hearing a sample of this band on the Red Roses For Me compilation cd, "A Boy, A Girl And A Rendezvous" last year, I'd been wanting to hear more from this Dublin band. Well, I got their full-length, and they're everything I could want! Excellent, quirky songs with a cool, edgy sound. Many of the songs have multiple parts to them, with occasional odd time signatures and stop/starts, making them a bit more complex than the usual indie rock song; yet they still manage to stay pretty short. Musically, they've got bits of the Delgado's, the Pixies, and Bob Hund; often times I can hear similarities with "Seamonsters"-era Wedding Present, but mostly in the sound (not really the delivery). They have that same intensity and urgency, even during the slower, quieter songs, like "The Out Song" or "Quick". Recorded in the Chemikal Underground studio, this sound on this is perfect: the guitars are both jangly and often noisy, the rhythm section is punchy, and the vocals are quite good, too. I'd call this a very good debut record! MTQ=13/14

Splendidezine.com
The most telling components of this Irish band are zigzagging, stop-start guitars smartly set against anthemic beats, and drums that are whacked with such intensity that they throw melodies off-balance. Occasionally, the group sounds like the closing moments of a Pavement album, intensified by a factor of three, with "Divil the Bit", "The Out Song", "A Song Against the City" and "Stupid" ("You chased me out of your wedding") striking in their intensity and scope. When the band holds its guitars back, as with "She Falls", the results border on the claustrophobic. The two minutes of chanting that closes "HED" ("I've had my heart ripped out again") is also quite compelling. Still, the slow songs are mostly a drag, because they keep the speed-demon drummer from pounding his instrument and shooting the sticks from cannons into the blaze of guitars and evocative cries. It's these demonstrations of anger that I like most about the Dudley Corporation.
- Theodore Defosse

FreakyTrigger.co.uk
If the world of the Dudley Corporation is currently a lonely one then THEY SHOULD NOT YET DESPAIR! For the power of my subconscious has come to save them!!! The Corpo, you see, have saved my faith in rock music many a time! In a world where the rockists are allowed to churn out nonsense on Pitchfork all day long about cockfarming post rock (like postal chess but louder) and the two rock choices are between Endless Noise and US Punk Pop, the Corpo make a REFRESHING CHANGE. Like going into a beer garden instead of the back room. And ordering a GIN and FANTA LIMON with swizzle stick instead of a Pint of the Usual. In a sticky glass. Urgh. But a bit less GURLY obv.
Ah yes but anyway where was I? Oh yes, they will not be lonely because WORD CAME TO ME IN A DREAM!!! In this dream, I passed through a wonderful vista of the streets of North London on a double decker red bus and my destination was to a Dudley Corporation musical gathering. There would be the squiggly guitars and the wicked fast basslines and the BEST DRUMMING EVAH, what more do you need for a rock experience? Venue? An indoor tennis court! I see bassist Pip doctoring his low frequencies on the sidelines. I wave, go over and LIKE A MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PITCHER, he throws me a beer! Quality! I then rock over to see guitar hero Dudley and punk rock drummer Joss. Joss drums like a BANG CRASH MONKEY HERO! But in my dream he is a professional marathon runner and is wearing a SWEATBAND on his head!! Hee, he looked funny. We do a bit of idle chit chat and then the Arsemonkey tells me she is bored and wants to go home. So we rock back home and then switch the telly on and what do we see?? The Corpo! Playing the Royal Festival Hall! To A CAST OF THOUSANDS! All cheering like wot the great unwashed are liable to do. Hoorah!!! I put forward that this is not at all being lonely but instead it is being ROCKSTARS!!! Yay!
And then someone threw a cucumber on stage. It is obviously phallic.
I love the Dudley's. It's rock but not rockist, it's pop but they don't wear spangly S Club FroXoR (although if they did they would be best band EVAH maybe even better than KATE BUSH). The noise from the GEETAR and the intricate COMPLEXITY makes everything they do a WINNAH - and even when they slow it down I have been known to break my 'Oh No, Not The Ballad' rule and let them rock the melancholy acoustical tree hugging HIPPY RUBBIDGE. Because they can actually do it quite well due to lashings of very dark humour which drop kick them out of the ditch of mediocrity like 3 meng on new fangled FLYING MACHINES.
(9/10, obv. Get Kate Bush on backing vocals, 10/10.)
- Sarah Clarke

DreamsNeverEnd Zine
God, I love music...I love it so much that it is a heavenly feeling to be drunk by it and I love The Dudley Corporation as well as this is emocore seen through Dublin-eyes... Irish music like you probably never heard it before and not a surprise as this cd has been recorded in the Glaswegian Chemikal Underground-studios (The Delgado's, Bis...) and this is what The Dudley Corporation are about...an outing of emotions dressed up in lo-fi pop songs that made stars out of (well kind of...) Shellac or so... It�s all soft (Sebadoh-ish) but in emocore-music (not that it has to be really classified as such) you have those guitar outbursts and there are plenty of to be found on this great album (therefore The Dudley Corporation were featured on lots of independent 7�inches) and therefore they�re the kind of band for anyone who likes his guitar music a bit different....