By James “Jaime the LaTn LuVr” Lopez

Before I start this review, I would like to point out that the Silversun Pickups are NOT the smashing pumpkins, nor do they have any members, relationships and/or clones in their band from the Smashing Pumpkins. With that being said, Swoon, Silversun Pickups sophomore album is going to be getting more Smashing Pumpkins comparisons than you can smash a pumpkin at.

            Silversun Pickups came out of nowhere in 2006 with their first album Carnavas and had the catchiest tune of all time with “Lazy Eye”. Every little Indie hipster and scene kid flocked to it making it their anthem for everything. The album also delivered an amazing package with other hits like “Rusted Wheel” and “Little Lovers so Polite.” The album was mastered beautifully, the tracks were placed in the right position, and the songs did not feel too short or too long. That was one of those albums that could be put on repeat.

            With the second album, Swoon, it seems that some of the tightness and magic presented in Carnavas was put to the wayside to introduce more orchestral accompaniments and more overarching guitar solos and riffs. Each song on the album clocks in at 4 minutes or longer presumably to give the songs more time to build and unleash the very unique style of guitar playing by the lead singer, Brian Aubbert. The songs all have a very distinct sound; although you can say each song a song you would expect from the Silversun Pickups, there is not a consistent basic theme on every song. What is good about this is that each song has its own potential to stand alone by itself. The first song, “There’s No Secrets This Year” is reminiscent of a brighter much happier time and has a very formulaic catchy sound while “Growing Old is Getting Old”, you can feel a sense of nostalgia and sadness in the lyrics that is far different and more mature than most of the songs written by SSPU. However, because of the lack of consistency with their songs, the album doesn’t feel as tight as their first. The transition from song to song doesn’t blend well and when their first single “Panic Switch” comes on, it is a little abrupt and takes away the flow of the album.

            But this of course is being extremely nitpicky. Carnavas was perfect magic, so to expect the SSPU to remake that magic is holding them up to high expectations. Swoon is not so much a direct sequel to Carnavas it is an experimental album where the band is trying new forms and styles, including strings in the background as well as letting the female bassist, Nikki Monninger have more mic time and be more present on the tracks. Swoon does not have a catch all song like Lazy Eye that will go downs as the best track of 2009 but it does show that the SSPU are willing to experiment with their music and do not want to become stagnant and predictable.  The album has a lot of new sounds and songs that are similar to their first album, but it is trying to explore and change so that they are not getting pigeon-holed as this generation’s Smashing Pumpkins. Overall, I would recommend this album to anyone who loves great music. They were after all were my top pick for best album of 2006.

Reccomended Tracks: Panic Switch, The Royal We, Substitution, Theres No Secrets This Year

To see the video for their first single Panic Switch click here.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 4:46 pm and is filed under CD Reviews, Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.