Dum Dum Girls will be beautiful and sad while they’re downtown

“Why be good?” Dee Dee Penny asks, before offering her preferred alternative. “Be beautiful and sad.”

And there you have it, the chief operating principle of the Dum Dum Girls, Penny’s band.

The group’s latest record, “Too True,” sounds like a throwback to overcast ’80s Brit synth pop with its ricocheting, reverbed guitars, machinelike drumming and Penny’s breathy vocals, which somehow sound stoic and seductive at once.

Penny cites New Wave’s dark queen Siouxsie Sioux as an influence.

Too true.

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow on Twitter @JasonBracelin.