Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Release date:  April 14, 2009

If there’s any band today that would be poised to lead a full-fledged Nineties-alternative revival, it would be the Silversun Pickups.  Few albums in recent memory have captured that unique vibe as well as 2009’s Swoon.  The California band has certainly chosen to channel an interesting time for music.  Back in the early Nineties, more so than ever before, the lines between mainstream and underground, between ubiquitous and obscure, were beginning to blur.  This change in the status quo of popular music was often reflected in the music itself.  The dichotomy of catchy hooks and lo-fi noise, of anguished lyrics and toe-tapping grooves, became a common one - just listen to any early Smashing Pumpkins album and you’ll hear it.  It’s this combination of total accessibility and blown-speaker aesthetics that the Pickups have very effectively tapped into - and, in some ways, improved upon - on their latest album.

An indispensable part of the equation is, of course, the overall sound of the album.  Swoon is a meticulously textured album, although that may not be immediately obvious - the production is usually subtle enough that it’s barely noticeable.  Nothing blatantly jumps out at you; everything just sounds, in a word, right.  Fuzzed-out guitars surface and recede again among driving drum beats, sinuous bass lines, and just the right amount of layered, effect-laden sound to fill in whatever gaps there may be and set the mood of the song perfectly.  From the opening swells of first track “There’s No Secrets This Year,” giving way to one of the album’s most relentless guitar riffs, to the much more subdued, slow-building atmosphere of “Growing Old Is Getting Old,” the album hits the sonic mark again and again.  Perhaps most remarkably, Swoon achieves this without sounding overly Pro-Tooled, retaining a very human touch - no small feat in today’s overly-engineered musical landscape.

Of course, all this sonic construction would be for naught if the songs themselves didn’t stand up to scrutiny.  Luckily, the Pickups have enough songwriting chops to match their mood-setting skill.  First single “Panic Switch” displays their prowess as effectively as any other track, as frontman Brian Aubert’s distinctive delicate-to-caustic vocals outline insistent melodies that are guaranteed to stick with you long after the song ends.  “The Royal We” and “Catch & Release” are just as catchy and enduring, and together with most of the rest of the album’s tracks, prove that this band is far more than a Gen-X nostalgia act.  Instead of reliving a point in musical history without offering anything new, the Silversun Pickups are crafting mature, relevant, and totally enjoyable music that should appeal to a wide range of musical tastes and ages.  Go pick up Swoon - you won’t be disappointed.

4/5

Standout Tracks:

• “There’s No Secrets This Year”
• “Growing Old Is Getting Old”
• “The Royal We”
• “Catch & Release”