Electric Toys

After releasing their debut EP Good Luck and Games in late 2007 (produced by Bryce Goggin, who has produced, mixed, or engineered Pavement, Antony & the Johnsons, The Ramones, and Bishop Allen), in June 2009 the band headed back to the studio with returning co-producer Goggin to record their full-length debut, Electric Toys. With the album, The Dig has crafted twelve rock songs of various shapes, sizes, and moods, linked by the band's indelible hooks. Written and arranged by all four members, the songs often tell a story: darkish tales with twisted circumstances and desperate people driven to do bad things. Alternately, there are classical references to girls, love, and the many points in-between. Mosseri and Baldwin alternate lead vocals throughout the album; Mosseri's soaring, roguish tenor takes lead on the poppier tracks, while Baldwin's raspy, weathered croon holds court on the guitar-heavy, wall-rattling anthems. Differing in sound, their voices retain a stylistic similarity won by playing, singing, and writing together for the past fourteen years. This similarity grants Electric Toys a seamless flow from track to track, striking a perfect equilibrium between upbeat and moody rockers. The unaccompanied chords of Eiser's keyboard launch the alternately wistful and roaring album opener 'Carry Me Home,' introducing essential atmospherics that, along with his rhythm guitar parts, in many ways help shape the sound of both the album and the band with additional layers of depth and color. Mosseri and Alegre's intertwining rhythm section propels each track, while Baldwin's deft guitar work ranges from a lilt to a shimmer to a howl across the album.