Saturday, May 23, 2009

Music: Silversun Pickups - Swoon: C

I totally enjoyed their previous album - Carnavas. It was a great mix of shoegazer, pop, and rock. Very similar to the Smashing Pumpkins. Unfortunately Swoon completely disappointed me. Sure, it opens great with the driving "There's No Secrets This Year". And "Substitution" is easily the best on the album with a great live guitar. It's a great rock/pop song that hooks into you. But the hit song "Panic Switch" middling at best and has completely useless lyrics. The rest of the album gets too brooding and somber. The whole album sounds very over produced. I can't imagine the band playing this stuff live. It's too mechanical, overdubbed, and completely perfectly on the beat. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if much of the bass lines were actually a synth and sequenced.

The one shining person in the band is the drummer. His beats are live and at times raucus. Too bad he's playing infront of robots. Hopefully the band gets back a bit to a more lively sound with less studio magicry. Otherwise Silversun Pickups should be "waiting and fading and floating away."

1 comment:

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