Artist: Silversun Pickups
Album: Swoon
Year: 2009
Grade: 2 pretzels
Of all the bands they could have modeled themselves after, I don’t understand why Silversun Pickups chose the Smashing Pumpkins. While the Pumpkins certainly are (well…they were) a great band, their unique brand of greatness was inexplicable and essentially impossible to replicate. The Pumpkins magically made all the things you’re not supposed to do in rock sound good: nasal singing, melodramatic string use, high-concept double albums and overwrought lyrics. I realize that those characteristics sound terrible on paper, but anyone who’s familiar with the Pumpkins’ work knows that they also manage to be the band’s biggest strengths. The Smashing Pumpkins made the impossible possible. However, that kind of luck can only happen to one band per fifty-year period (I believe science has proven this) and Silversun Pickups are about forty years too early to even have a chance.
In many ways, this is a pity, since the one thing Silversun Pickups can do very well is rock the fuck out. They’ve got the Pumpkins-esque guitar squall down to a science, conjuring up huge walls of distorted noise. They even understand how to harness this awesome power, carefully switching the dynamics of their music between gentle, low-key passages and full-bore, face-melting riffage. In terms of pure, undiluted rock, Silversun Pickups might be one of the strongest bands of this decade. Unfortunately, that’s not the only factor. There are so many other things that contribute to great music and Silversun Pickups find ways to fail in each other category.
The most offending characteristic is Brian Aubert’s insipid vocal delivery. He’s clearly trying to ape the piercing nasal whine of the Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, but he doesn’t have nearly enough edge on his voice to make it work. His voice is far too gentle, becoming impossibly fey and limp when sung in a high nasal range. The disconnect between the crashing rock and the airy singing is staggering. As if that wasn’t enough, the band drowns most of their songs with globs of strings, watering them down into schmaltzy radio ballads. There are times for strings and times when they’re best kept eighty miles away from the recording studio. Silversun Pickups need to figure that out, ASAP.
The songwriting isn’t horrible, but it isn’t stellar either. Aubert has a disappointing attachment to routine rock songwriting, favoring awkward metaphors (try listening to the lead single, “Panic Switch”) and clichéd imagery. Even when he manages to throw a decent song together, such as the surprisingly moody “Catch And Release”, the band ruins it by adding the requisite strings and distracting studio antics. Silversun Pickups are a band that simply sound like they’re trying far too hard. In their quest to emulate their rock heroes from the 90s, they’ve completely missed the point of what made bands like the Smashing Pumpkins great. It wasn’t the irritating vocal delivery or the over-the-top drama. It was an honest and new lyrical perspective combined with intense personality and rage. By trying to smooth over some of those rough edges, Silversun Pickups have essentially castrated their music. Even with guitars playing for miles, this is music without any balls whatsoever.
In many ways, this is a pity, since the one thing Silversun Pickups can do very well is rock the fuck out. They’ve got the Pumpkins-esque guitar squall down to a science, conjuring up huge walls of distorted noise. They even understand how to harness this awesome power, carefully switching the dynamics of their music between gentle, low-key passages and full-bore, face-melting riffage. In terms of pure, undiluted rock, Silversun Pickups might be one of the strongest bands of this decade. Unfortunately, that’s not the only factor. There are so many other things that contribute to great music and Silversun Pickups find ways to fail in each other category.
The most offending characteristic is Brian Aubert’s insipid vocal delivery. He’s clearly trying to ape the piercing nasal whine of the Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, but he doesn’t have nearly enough edge on his voice to make it work. His voice is far too gentle, becoming impossibly fey and limp when sung in a high nasal range. The disconnect between the crashing rock and the airy singing is staggering. As if that wasn’t enough, the band drowns most of their songs with globs of strings, watering them down into schmaltzy radio ballads. There are times for strings and times when they’re best kept eighty miles away from the recording studio. Silversun Pickups need to figure that out, ASAP.
The songwriting isn’t horrible, but it isn’t stellar either. Aubert has a disappointing attachment to routine rock songwriting, favoring awkward metaphors (try listening to the lead single, “Panic Switch”) and clichéd imagery. Even when he manages to throw a decent song together, such as the surprisingly moody “Catch And Release”, the band ruins it by adding the requisite strings and distracting studio antics. Silversun Pickups are a band that simply sound like they’re trying far too hard. In their quest to emulate their rock heroes from the 90s, they’ve completely missed the point of what made bands like the Smashing Pumpkins great. It wasn’t the irritating vocal delivery or the over-the-top drama. It was an honest and new lyrical perspective combined with intense personality and rage. By trying to smooth over some of those rough edges, Silversun Pickups have essentially castrated their music. Even with guitars playing for miles, this is music without any balls whatsoever.
Your call for a pun makes me want to think of one really badly, but all I can muster is SilverPUN Pickups, a pun about making a pun about a band...
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