Finnish/French duo The Dø (pronounced “The Doh” and based on the first note in the standard scale, Do-Re-Mi etc.) have been big in France for quite some time, and now they’re ready to take on Scandinavia and the world with their enticing genre-bastard of a debut, ‘A Mouthful’.

And a mouthful it may seem as singer Olivia B. Merilahti (Finland) and multi-instrumentalist Dan Levy (France) roam playfully around everything from and in-between neo-folk to trip hop over pop and rock, but the duo manage to maintain a bright red thread all the way through.

A good example is the opening trio of songs, where The Dø go from stomp-like opener ‘Playground Hustle’ (in which Olivia sounds like a big kids choir) straight into folksy ballad ‘At Last!’ and continue with fairly straight-up and very appealing pop/rock in ‘On My Shoulders’ without coming across as a genre-confused outfit who want to do too much at one time.

Although a handful of the 15 songs could’ve been cut from the album, it’s really easy to forgive them when you get charmed by ukulele driven ballad of a crap lover ‘Stay (Just A Little Bit More), hit by the urban-style Balkan beat and horns of freaky ‘Queen Dot Kong’ and caressed by Olivia B. Merilahti’s amazing talent for interpreting her own lyrics in catchy lo-fi rocker ‘The Bridge Is Broken’.

Do is down. Let’s hope Olivia and Dan will soon be ready with Re and Mi…

Genre: Rock
Who: The Dø
Title: A Mouthful
Label: Rockhopper/A:larm Music
Year: 2008
Country: Finland/France
Language: English
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Recommended tracks:
Playground Hustle – At Last! – On My Shoulders – The Bridge Is Broken – Stay – Queen Dot Kong