Release Date: January 18Label: Fat Possum Records
Smith Westerns are a four-piece band from Chicago, who traffic in a slightly more indie-friendly version of glam-rock's fabulous riffitude. However, if you read the reviews of Dye It Blonde, the group's second album, one point is hammered over and over again: holy sweet jesus christ, these kids are young! Their debut album was recorded while the band members were in high school. Which was last year. That's some sobering stuff for a guy like myself, at the ripe ol' age of twenty-two. However, the average age of Smith Westerns has ended up haunting them in a distinctly gimmicky way. We're not talking about music recorded by children, but we're getting uncomfortably close. Everything they've released thus far has been greeted with condescending disclaimers about the band being "good for their age." Dye It Blonde's critical reception has been no different, as various major publications have been heaping praise upon it. Yet, once you recover from the shock of realizing you're listening to young whippersnappers, the album loses a fair bit of charm. Beneath these (presumably) cherubic, young, smiling faces lurks a set of catchy-but-uninspired riffs borrowed from T. Rex albums. The sparkling keyboards in the background give off a distinctly calculated quality as they try to evoke weary decadence. The lyrics expound upon the usual themes of youth, love, romance, tragedy and various combinations thereof. Sure, hearing teenagers play music this professional is nifty, but that doesn't automatically make it great. At the end of the day, Dye It Blonde plays strictly by the rules, aping a set of heroes whose heyday was long before Smith Westerns' band members (or myself) were born. Their inability to add anything substantial to an old formula keeps them from being anything truly noteworthy.
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