Album Review: Silversun Pickups Swoon
Second Full Length Album Continues the Fuzz, Loses The Shoegazing
Apr 23, 2009
To listen to Swoon, the latest offering from Silversun Pickups is to be taken into the realm of sports metaphor: a great up-in-coming prospect, decent power and range, just can't hit the curve ball. The album's ten tracks run in manic squeals and pops, then swoop into crystal like ping and delicate nuance though in a familiar sort of way. This has all happened before.
Dave Cooley, producer of SSPU's first album Carnavas (2006) was brought in to helm Swoon, the same as Tony Hoffer (mixer) and Darren Waterson, who reprised his role for album art. It feels not quite like a bolt of lightning striking twice, but the preventative defense in the late game. "Tony Hoffer is back in the studio mixing Swoon," the band writes on their website, "It's great to have him back and we know the songs are in very good hands...We've been lucky enough to work with a lot of the same talented people that helped us out in Carnavas." The cast definitely provided a comfort level for the band though may have stunted their growth.
Inside the Album
The reviews are already piling up with everyone from RollingStone to USA Today weighing in on the album. "‘Swoon’ is a bit of a dying whale of a record. In a good way; vast, dark, a little mysterious, sad, dignified and palpably in pain," writes Pete Cashmore for nme.com. Cashmore's adjectives are a common thread among reviewers of Swoon. Words like "fuzz", "vast", and "Smashing Pumpkins" abound in many assessments. A better question coming out of these reviews is the one no one is asking: Is it okay to use Billy Corgan in reference to a compliment again?
That the record is a success is undeniable, though what it couldhave been had Silversun Pickups decided to go with a different team during the recording process will never be known. What emerged is something that, while artisticly and pavanishly beautiful, is the safe way to go: Carnavas, round two.
IPod Worthy: "Panic Switch." "There's No Secrets This Year." "Growing Old is Getting Old."
The Summer Tour
SSPU will be on the road in support of Swoon this Summer with stops at Festivals across the United States. They kicked things off in grand fashion with an appearance at Coachella on the 18th of April. The next stop will be on the 25th of April at Sasquatch 2009 in Washington, though after that, fans may have to wait until August for the band to return state-side at the All Points West Music Festival in New Jersey.
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