Welcome to the Monkey House (album)

This article is about the album by The Dandy Warhols. For the assortment of short stories written by Kurt Vonnegut, see Welcome to the Monkey House.

Welcome to the Monkey House
Studio album by The Dandy Warhols
Released	5 May 2003
Recorded	11 September 2001 – 2 December 2002
Genre	Synth pop, power pop, alternative rock
Length	48:27
Label	Capitol
Producer	Courtney Taylor-Taylor, Nick Rhodes, Tony Visconti
The Dandy Warhols chronology
Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (2000) Welcome to the Monkey House (2003) The Black Album/Come On Feel the Dandy Warhols (2004)
Singles from Welcome to the Monkey House
"You Were the Last High" Released: 28 July 2003 "We Used to Be Friends" Released: 2003 "Plan A" Released: 24 November 2003

Welcome to the Monkey House is the fourth studio album by American alternative rock band The Dandy Warhols. It was released on 5 May 2003 through Capitol Records. The album featured the popular single "We Used to Be Friends", which has gone on to become one of the band's most well-known songs and is the theme song for the TV show Veronica Mars. It featured a shift in sound towards '80s-inspired synth pop, as it was produced by Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran.

Background

The album was originally mixed by Grammy Award-winning soul mixing engineer Russell Elevado, but Capitol Records, the band's label at the time, were unhappy with releasing it and it was shelved, contrary to the band's wishes. The released version is instead a more polished, synth pop-influenced mix by Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran. Duran Duran admitted to being a fan of the group, with Nick Rhodes saying "The Dandys are one of the few bands now with a real vibe". The Elevado mix was released as The Dandy Warhols Are Sound in 2009.

On the making of the record, frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor has said "The approach to this record is different, because we wanted to see if we could take the Simon and Garfunkel melodies and lay them over Dr. Dre arrangements".

Album cover

Just as the album's title directly references Kurt Vonnegut's short story of the same name and 1968 collection, its cover painting by Ron English is a prime example of that artist's mash-up signature style; the visual pun of a banana half-exposed by a zipper down its peel cannily melds two most famous classic rock album cover designs by one of English's acknowledged major influences, Andy Warhol: The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers and The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground & Nico (on which Warhol was also nominal "producer").

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Courtney Taylor-Taylor, except where noted. 

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Welcome to the Monkey House"		1:04
2.	"We Used to Be Friends"		3:20
3.	"Plan A"		4:01
4.	"The Dope (Wonderful You)"		4:37
5.	"I Am a Scientist"		3:13
6.	"I Am Over It"		3:50
7.	"The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone"		1:54
8.	"Insincere Because I"		3:49
9.	"You Were the Last High"	Taylor-Taylor, Evan Dando	4:46
10.	"Heavenly"		3:36
11.	"I Am Sound"		4:00
12.	"Hit Rock Bottom"		2:53
13.	"You Come In Burned"		7:24

"I Am a Scientist" contains a sample of "Fashion" by David Bowie.^{[citation needed]}

Enhanced CD content

The enhanced CD contained the short film The End of the Old as We Know It, written and directed by Courtney Taylor-Taylor, and a link to The Odditorium, a (no longer active) website where fans could "see band web casts, play games, and download exclusive music and mayhem".

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	73
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
The A.V. Club	favorable
Drowned in Sound
Entertainment Weekly	B
Piero Scaruffi	4/10
Pitchfork	3.3/10
PopMatters	favorable
Q
Robert Christgau	A−
Uncut

The album was generally well-received critically. Allmusic wrote "With their fifth album, Welcome to the Monkey House, the band capitalizes on their pop sensibilities and even manages to turn their prior weaknesses into strengths, resulting in a collection of gloriously blank, cleverly stupid neo-new wave songs." Robert Christgau gave the album an A- rating, calling it "clever and droll but also hypnotic and mysterious". On the other hand, Pitchfork, critical of the band, gave the album a low 3.3/10 rating, writing "these songs highlight the poseur mentality and insincerity that paradoxically plagues and blesses The Dandy Warhols".

Personnel

• Courtney Taylor-Taylor – vocals, guitar
• Zia McCabe – keyboards, vocals
• Peter Loew – guitar
• Brent De Boer – drums, vocals
• Nick Rhodes – synthesiser on "We Used to Be Friends", "Plan A", "Scientist", "I Am Over It", "The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone", "Insincere", "The Last High", "Heavenly", and "I Am Sound"
• Tony Visconti – bass guitar on "Wonderful You" and "Rock Bottom" and backing vocals on "Rock Bottom"
• Nile Rogers – guitar on "Scientist"
• Simon Le Bon – backing vocals on "Plan A"
• Yoad Nevo – guitar on "Welcome to the Monkey House", "Plan A", and "Heavenly"
• Adam Flick – bass on "Plan A", "I Am Sound"
• Mark Tinley – guitar on "I Am Over It"
• Jamie Jackson – piano on "I Am Sound"
• Parker Posey – mandolin on "I Am Sound"
• Sally Boyden – backing vocals on "We Used to Be Friends"
• Sam Dodds – backing vocals on "We Used to Be Friends"
• Cloudia Tinley – giggles on "We Used to Be Friends"

External links

• Welcome to the Monkey House at The Dandy Warhols' official website
• Welcome to the Monkey House at Allmusic
• Welcome to the Monkey House at Discogs (list of releases)
• Welcome to the Monkey House at Metacritic