My year of awesome music kicked off to a rocky start. Blue October was first to release a new record that I was highly interested in, but I was not impressed with the results. Next up come the Silversun Pickups (SSPU) with Swoon.
If Blue October's Approaching Normal was something different for the band, a little experimentation gone wrong, SSPU don't mess with a good thing. Swoon is a great album loaded with crunchy guitar riffs, excellent drum-work, and a solid bass-line. "There's No Secrets This Year" matches Carnavas' "Melatonin" in energy, blasting into the distorted guitars and comfortable vocals that any SSPU fan is acoustomed to hearing. Between here and the excellent track five, "Panic Switch," SSPU has trouble seperating themselves from Carnavas. Swoon is largely a been-there, done-that album that blends so well together with their previous work, it almost distracts the listener from taking in the new material.
This is, of course, the curse of a solid band: SSPU has a unique sound that rocks overall. Unfortunately, casual fans will most likely pass this album up and choose Carnavas to scratch their SSPU itch. Hardcore followers of the band will swear by Swoon as The Next Great Thing. This battle is largely divided among party lines.
B3 out.
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