By: Brian Gearing
If you didn’t catch Silversun Pickups‘ debut, don’t let your immediate reaction to Swoon (Dangerbird Records) discourage you. They are not, in fact, the second coming of the Smashing Pumpkins, though plenty of critics heard the same thing on Carnavas in 2006, and even Billy Corgan’s ears might perk up at “There’s No Secrets This Year,” which opens the Pickups’ sophomore effort with the same delay-soaked riffing as Siamese Dream’s “Cherub Rock.” A few tracks in, though, and it’s pretty obvious that there’s more to Silversun Pickups than tempered revisions of classic alternative radio fodder.
Swoon finally hits its stride on “Panic Switch,” a merciless onslaught of quick-fire drums and fuzzy guitar that bleed into a single bloody puddle of noise before relenting on the echoing balladry of “Draining.” Brian Aubert’s dulcet vocals fit well on the album’s gentler numbers, but are far more striking when contrasted with the heavy crunch of the Pickups’ distorted cacophony. “Sort Of” works through the band’s many moods until the vaguely pastoral ease of “Substitution,” which mixes a little Americana pop with their concrete L.A. freeway rock.
Silversun Pickups wear their influences on their sleeve, but they’re no slaves to history. Swoon combines the depressed aggression of ’90s alternative rock with this decade’s bittersweet pop-rock flavors and creates a gritty, sugary hybrid of the grungy glory of Pearl Jam and the aforementioned Pumpkins and contemporaries like The Secret Machines and Earlimart. With a pedigree like that, they’re poised to conquer more than one radio format and maybe make us all aware of what we’ve been missing when we flip the stations without listening first.
JamBase | Shining
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