Koodoz Design

Firstly, I just wanna make it clear that I have, in fact, known about this band for quite some time and have been listening to this album and Silversun Pickups’ other releases solidly since their release. So, for all you negative nancies who are quick to judge me on my tardiness… give me a break! I’ve been busy with stuff, dognamit ;)

As a lot of fans will agree, Silversun Pickups’ first LP, Carnavas, released in 2006 was a real winner and a breath of fresh air to the Californian indy rock scene. It was also, at long last, the perfect substitute for an album that Billy Corgan was never able to deliver to his die-hard ‘Pumpkins’ fans.

For those who haven’t heard the audible delights or read anything about the Silversun Pickups’, they have been closely compared to the The Smashing Pumpkins (during their mid-90s peak) on both an instrumental and vocal level. Something that is quite hard to deny, considering lead singer, Christopher Guanlao, has a particularly nasally/feminine voice, similar to Corgan’s, not to mention the fact that both bands have/had female bass player(s). They also, coincidentally, happen to have matching band name initials, which is, indeed, quite the co-incee-dink.

Now, three years (and 5 months) later, Silversun Pickups have released their highly anticipated sophomore album titled Swoon. For a lot of the band’s admirers, the follow-up to their successfully popular debut was always going to have a heavy cloud of concern hovering over it. The common question on everyone’s minds was whether or not the band would be able to shake the hoodoo of a follow-up album and raise the bar on Carnavas. Even I, a relatively passive and neutral judge had my pre-release doubts about their next studio release. In fact, even upon the release of Swoon, it took me a long while to shake the post-Carnavas hangover and absorb the unique elements of their new material.

So what are my thoughts on Swoon? Well, after a substantial period to review the album, I can confidently say that this 10 track LP offers 52 minutes of solid, unmistakably unique music that is rich with original riffs, deep driving bass lines and plenty of angsty lyrics to fill my ‘post-90s grunge void’. Swoon, IMO, has secured the band with the glue it needed to concrete itself as a legitimate act and not just another one trick, L.A based pony.

Check out the band performing Panic Switch – One of Swoon’s stand out tracks – live and ‘unplugged’ on MTV:

Track List:

1. There’s No Secrets This Year
2. The Royal We
3. Growing Old Is Getting Old
4. It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone
5. Panic Switch
6. Draining
7. Sort Of
8. Substitution
9. Catch and Release
10. Surrounded (or Spiraling)

So, to all the oldschool Pumpkins fans who are desperately craving a grunge fix from a bygone era, I strongly suggest you get your hands on a copy of both Swoon and Carnavas ASAP. And for those who are not entirely convinced, you can hear more of their stuff on their MySpace page or learn more about the band, see when they are touring or buy the album directly from their official site.