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Swoon ReviewWhile many modern bands try to go retro and end up with sterile, insincere imitations of the 'real' thing, Silversun Pickups' traverse into 90's-tinged alternative rock (I admittedly can't help but think of The Smashing Pumpkins) is a totally different animal...the 'borrowing' of bits and pieces never comes across as shoddy...in fact, their second full-length album is one of the most 'original' works of somewhat mainstream rock I've heard in a while. The songs here are 'Indie'-sounding and melodic at the same time, and for me, music is nothing without memorable melodies.
But if you're expecting a collection of pop/rock 'commercial' songs on Swoon, then you may want to save some bucks and look elsewhere...I feel this album is best when taken in as a whole. While there are very good individual 'stand-outs' here (the super hi-intensity "There's No Secrets This Year" and "The Royal We", the hypnotic "Growing Old Is Getting Old", the catchy "It's Nice To Know You Work Alone", the beautifully melodic "Catch And Release"), Silversun Pickups create a mesmerizing atmosphere (albeit somewhat dark) that you can 'immerse' yourself into from beginning to end. Metaphorically speaking, this record is like hit-and-miss thunderstorms with periodic breaks in the clouds...the 'storms' being songs like the aforementioned opening tracks "There's No Secrets..." and "The Royal We", "Panic Switch", and "Surrounded(or Spiraling)"...and the 'breaks' being tracks like "Draining", "Substitution", and "Catch And Release"...where some of the distortion gets toned down in order to open up 'holes' where the songs can breathe and the vocals take center stage.
While Swoon generally maintains a mid-tempo nature, tempo changes are more common (both within songs and between them) this time around. For example, "There's No Secrets This Year", with those fantastic fuzzy guitars blazing away throughout most of the song, switches to a slower, ethereal, atmospheric ending minute, perfectly setting up the transition to "The Royal We", which starts out slow but quickly regains a driving tempo, and eventually soars to the rare occurrence of vocalist Brian Aubert extending his vocal range to its limit...the rest of the album mainly stays within his 'comfort zone' lower to middle registers range. On "Growing Old...", a clean bass guitar and kick drum groove serves as the foundation for light synths, delayed clean guitars, and cavernous vocals before eventually turning up the heat (and distortion) toward the end. And overall, the drum sounds here are generally 'small' sounding and not produced to be the focal point of the album's sound (plenty of loud cymbal crashes, however). The amazing intertwining of Joe Lester's keyboards and Aubert's guitars are what make this album stand out for me...the bass guitar work also drives many of the tunes in exceptional fashion.
Perhaps the album's only weakness is the moment or two when the multi-layered instrumentation and distortion leave little room for the mainly melancholy vocals to be fully intelligible, but that's a concession I can handle considering that the music of Silversun Pickups' sophomore album almost has me swooning. Grade: B+
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