Silversun Pickups Drop Momentum With Their Latest
The group delivers on none of the promises that their earlier work had hinted at.
Silversun Pickups
Swoon
Released on Apr 14, 2009
Damn. The Chicago Bulls lost game three of the playoff series against the Boston Celtics and while I remain hopelessly optimistic that somehow they will end up coming back, I feel that I need to pinch myself. I need to get back to reality. The reality which is that the Boston Celtics are probably going to end up dominating the Bulls for the rest of the series. There I said it. Damn. And whether or not you keep up with The Bulls, the same can really apply to the Silversun Pickups’ first album, Carnavas, which was a bit of an indulgence of mine. While I absolutely cannot stand lead singer Brian Aubert’s annoyingly whiny voice, the surrounding music kept things tight with some solid guitar work and grooves. I had high hopes that a follow up to Carnavas would set the track record straight and make the Silversun Pickups the next hot indie thing.
Damn, was I wrong. Swoon takes everything that made Carnavas interesting and recycles it. The same sense of dynamics, textures, and song writing is applied to just about every song on this album making it difficult to distinguish them. The lead single "Panic Switch" is the only song that manages to do something right with a long winded build up that segues into some serious riffage. It’s a solid track but when thats the highlight of your album - you have trouble.
The real problem with this record is the sheer lack of innovation or quality on these tracks. Its clearly apparent that the approach to song-writing here was quantity versus quality. I would gladly have taken a few filler tracks on this album so that some of the other songs can get a little more love and attention. Lead-off track "There’s No Secrets This Year" just repeats the high-low dynamic seen throughout most of Carnavas and adds a thick slice of intelligible teenage melodrama with lines like “I'll tell you a secret/ Let's make this perfectly clear/ There's no secrets this year.” Lyric wise, it’s apparent that Aubert’s inability to get past overused giggle-worthy lines like the formerly mentioned serve to nail the coffin shut on album that basically fails to take off.
There’s a serious lack of direction on this album and a result Swoon fails to distinguish itself from its predecessor as well as failing to become the album we all secretly wish the Silversun Pickups would release. Hopefully The Bulls can manage an upset with the Celtics in this playoff series - I genuinely want to see them make it to the next round of playoff action. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the Silversun Pickups. If we can just get another Carnavas that would be just fine by me.
High Point
Solid riffs and guitar work makes the album the appetizer on the menu. Pretty album cover.
Low Point
Like any appetizer, there isn’t enough substance or variety to make this worth more than a few listens. That and his undeniably annoying voice. Brian Molko did it better.
Posted by Danny Lopez on Apr 28, 2009 @ 6:00 am