While the Dopo Yume sound has developed with a stronger pop sensibility and multilayered lyrics, the preoccupations of the band have remained the same: love and ennui in the modern age. This musical directive is most fully realized on True Romance, which presents a guarded yet hopeful world of singles in the city by gently mixing irony and sincerity.
In concert, this subtle ironic/sincere mix can be easily missed in the midst of all the dancing and rocking out. Take the lyrics to "Get to Know Your Baby" for instance, which include spoken lines like "Get to know your baby/Learn to want what she wants/Tell her that she's hot a lot." On the album, the song follows "The Fun," a paean to cheap thrills and drunken hookups; a juxtaposition which undermines the literalness of the lyrics but bolsters the sentiment. At a recent New York City show, teenage girls were singing along with pure, heartfelt emotion while an older couple giggled over what they considered simplistic lyrics. Galland says he doesn't care if some people don't get it. "In my experience, if people listen to our music on their Walkman or in a personal setting, they enjoy it. Or in a party setting too. And if they don't enjoy it, that's okay." He adds though, "It definitely makes me happy when people sing along."

Dopo Yume's also been successful at converting audiences. They've opened for local acts, as well as national acts like Phantom Planet, Rufus Wainwright, and Ween, and have met with an overwhelmingly positive response. "We sell a lot of CDs and t-shirts, sign a lot of autographs," says Galland, though that doesn't mean they're always met with open arms. "Sometimes I get heckled, once I was tackled off stage, and I give people the finger if they're making faces and stuff. But in general I think we win the audience over."	Jordan Galland
Given that the band is so preoccupied with the rules and results of l.o.v.e., how many of the band members are currently in relationships? Two, though songwriter Galland isn't one of them. Whatever romantic travails he faces, odds are they'll lead to another brilliant rumination on true romance. photos courtesy of the DYX-The Dopo Yumé Street Team official site: DopoYume.com