Night Dolls with Hairspray

Night Dolls with Hairspray is a studio album by American electronic musician James Ferraro[4] released on October 31, 2010 by the independent record label Olde English Spelling Bee. Described as a "cycle of bubblegum pop songs,"[3] the album's lo-fi sound draws on sources such as 1980s pop culture tropes, B-movies, and glam punk. It garnered generally favorable reviews from music journalists, and was called a "weirdo masterpiece of the 21st century" by Impose.

Night Dolls with Hairspray
Studio album by James Ferraro
Released	October 31, 2010
Genre	Hypnagogic pop[1] dream pop[2] bubblegum pop[3]
Length	48:15
Label	Olde English Spelling Bee
Producer	James Ferraro
James Ferraro chronology
Last American Hero (2010) Night Dolls with Hairspray (2010) Far Side Virtual (2011)

Composition

In an interview, Ferraro claimed he had gotten into "weird street fashion" while recording Night Dolls with Hairspray, which led the record to be influenced by glam rock and power pop styles.[5] Of the record's concept, Ferraro explained: "the idea itself was basically just private material, just fooling around. I was really inspired to try to make just weird B-movie style trash."[4] Most of Night Dolls with Hairspray involves Ferraro exaggeratedly singing in falsetto. Ferraro reasoned that the singing style was "silly" and "harmless," and led the album to sound "cool" and "futuristic."[2]

Pitchfork described the album's overall instrumentation as consisting of "plunging bass lines, warped guitar riffs, and crooning vocals" that "bounce around the stereo space like lasers in a hall of mirrors."[6] A reviewer for Playground magazine described the tracks as "fragmentary songs," in that it feels like each track cuts to different songs; this "collage effect" is an essential part of hypnagogic pop, in that the variety of 1980s musical styles serve as an "exercise in nostalgia."[3]

According to FACT, Night Dolls with Hairspray explores the surfaces of popular media in the 1980s.[7] In doing so, Ferraro creates new bad behaviors to scenarios that are common in B movies released in the decade, wrote Nick Richardson of FACT.[7] "Leather High School" takes place in a 1980s high school movie situation, but adds a sexual context that would not be present in most movies of this genre released in the decade. As Ferraro sings, "The principal’s wearing panties under his suit / they’re taking him down to the boiler room. They’re going to whip him till he bleeds."[7] "Buffy Honkerburg’s Answering Machine" involves the singer as a stalker nerd sending lewd messages to a cheerleader in a slasher film scenario.[7]

Richardson analyses that there are also interludes that are "disorienting amalgams of gross-out sound effects, shortwave radio noise, advertising jingles and cartoon theme tunes," which all represent the negative by-products of the entertainment coummunity that the album mocks.[7] Night Dolls with Hairspray also focuses on how most people positively view an otherwise bad entertainment industry in the present time, where "real teenagers, like Ferraro records, are smelly, acnefied, confused; while Beyonce is a slick, inhuman cyborg," writes Richardson.[7] He also analyzes that the album "reflects a fantastical vision of the present that’s out of date and crumbling as soon as it’s realised – even as the vision hairpins to a blemishless space of muscled, digital geometry."[7]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Fact	4/5[7]
Pitchfork	7.9/10[6]
Playground	7.9/10[3]

An Impose magazine journalist called Night Dolls with Hairspray a "weirdo masterpiece of the 21st century."[8] Marc Masters of Pitchfork described it as "remarkably catchy music," writing that fans of the works of artists like Ariel Pink would really enjoy the album. He also called the album "dizzying" and "nauseating, much the way audiences left The Blair Witch Project more sick from the shaky camerawork than scared by the plot."[6] The Pitchfork blog Altered Zones called Night Dolls with Hairspray a "supremely listenable batch of hits" and "so poignant that it’ll leave you wondering how you (actually) chuckled at the roach-infested creeps that populated the album [on "Roaches Watch TV"]."[3] In a much harsher review, Joshua Paul Greene of MVRemix called the album "a painfully lo-fi, endlessly frenetic example of what I consider to be seriously unfulfilled potential."[9] He mainly panned the editing, more specifically the placement of sounds that ruin the flow of each song that otherwise have "catchy melodies and rhythms."[9] He also bashed the fact that most tracks on the record end randomly without a proper resolution.[9]

Track listing

Night Dolls with Hairspray[10]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Dollhouse Frotteur"	5:10
2.	"Runaway"	6:32
3.	"Brittney's Gum"	3:01
4.	"Leather High School"	5:41
5.	"Buffy Honkerburg's Answering Machine"	3:36
6.	"Lipstick On Ants"	1:51
7.	"Killer Nerd"	5:08
8.	"Roaches Watch TV"	1:29
9.	"Roses And Mystery"	4:31
10.	"Movie Monster"	4:47
11.	"Radio Cherubs"	6:29
Total length:		48:15

Release history

Region	Date	Format(s)	Label
Worldwide[10]	October 31, 2010	Digital download	Olde English Spelling Bee

References

1. MacFarlane, Richard (January 19, 2011). "Zoned In: James Ferraro: Night Dolls With Hairspray". Archived from the original on March 17, 2011. Altered Zones. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
2. "James Ferraro interview: "The city of dream.". Dummy. February 8, 2011. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
3. Conte, Iván (January 19, 2011). "Night Dolls With Hairspray". Playground. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
4. "Interview: James Ferraro And His Music Multiverse". Red Bull Music Academy. March 6, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
5. Cornwell, Samantha (January 3, 2011). "Artist Profile: James Ferraro". Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. Altered Zones. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
6. Masters, Marc (July 18, 2011). "James Ferraro: Nightdolls with Hairspray / On Air". Pitchfork. Conde Nast. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
7. Richardson, Nick (January 5, 2011). "James Ferraro: Night Dolls with Hairspray". Fact. The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
8. Krinsley, Jeremy (February 9, 2011). "New James Ferraro, "Tabloid 2". Impose. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
9. Paul Greene, Joshua (July 28, 2011). "James Ferraro – Night Dolls With Hairspray". MVRemix. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
10. "Night Dolls With Hairspray". Olde English Spelling Bee Bandcamp. Retrieved January 15, 2017.