How do you review a Dash Rip Rock album? It’s hard to compare it to other Dash albums because the band doesn’t put a lot of stock in those albums? Does the best Dash album have the most songs you want to shout along to? If so, Hee Haw Hell stands up pretty well with “MOAF” and “Fall Down, Go Boom” delivering solid, anthemic fun.

 

Or is the best Dash album the craziest one? If so, this is once again up there. First off, it’s a concept album loosely based on Dante’s Inferno, complete with a narrator and his guide going through the circles of hell, where he finds Lynyrd Skynyrd, meth-heads, George Clooney and jam band fans. Mojo Nixon preaches as Beelzebubba over a Dash take on the theme to “Chariots of Fire.” That’s nutty enough.

 

Or, is the best Dash one that displays Davis’ underrated songcraft? Sure, there are a lot of boneheaded Dash songs such as “Let’s Go Smoke Some Pot,” but there are also genuinely well constructed songs such as “I Want to Be Stuck Inside a Liquor Store with You.” Here, “If You See Kay” is that sort of song. The title is the main joke, but the song itself is musically unpredictable and verges on—dare I say it?—complexity.

 

Doubters who think the album might suffer from too much concept have good reason. It’s easy to imagine the people who made the album having more fun thinking stuff up than you’ll have listening to it. And to some extent, those concerns are borne out; Hee Haw Hell is rarely ha-ha funny, and the between song narration isn’t as pointed it needs to be to really draw blood.

 

Still, the concept focused Davis on taking care with the album to make sure it was fully realized. That resulted in the best-sounding, best-performed, most consistent Dash Rip Rock album yet. The question remains, though—does that make Hee Haw Hell a good Dash album?