Dressy Bessy

Like that friend who is always cheerful without being annoying -- or, God forbid, perky -- Dressy Bessy does pop with enough edge and subversiveness to infect even the most cynical among us. And while a cynic might say it's a little soon for a greatest-hits disc from this Denver-based...

By Kurt Brighton

May 15, 2003

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Like that friend who is always cheerful without being annoying -- or, God forbid, perky -- Dressy Bessy does pop with enough edge and subversiveness to infect even the most cynical among us. And while a cynic might say it's a little soon for a greatest-hits disc from this Denver-based band with only two full-lengths, one EP, and a couple of seven-inch records under its collective belt, Little Music is a worthwhile collection of hard-to-find tracks that illustrates what a fully formed unit the band was right from the get-go. The collection draws from various sources that are not widely available: The song "Lipstick," for example, was previously found only on the Japanese version of Pink Hearts, Yellow Moons, and a number of songs featured on compilations and splits appear here as well.

The songs on Little Music are uniformly well-executed and sharp, suggesting that the members of Dressy Bessy knew all along what they wanted to accomplish, what sound they were aiming for, and the type of songs they wanted to write. Some tracks, particularly the clean-sounding demo version of "Tidy," are so sharp that they could have appeared on any album as is.

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