Silversun Pickups--Swoon: A Review

This was written upon my first listen through the album. The Pumpkins comparison are rather inevitable.

The album's opener, "There's No Secrets This Year", starts with an ambient noise before giving way to typical SSPU layered distortion. This gives way to a cleaner sound and with that, the landscape is set as Brian Aubert's vocals enter the scene. This ping-pongs with a more aggressively distorted bridge and chorus. It's inevitable--this sounds like a Smashing Pumpkins song, but it's more accessable. "I'll tell you a secret, let's make this perfectly clear" Aubert sings, and I'm reminded of oh-so-many 90's alt. rock songs. The solo is a fuzzed-out wail and then this gives way to a droning bridge that picks up with the heavier parts, moves back to the drone, back to the heavy part, to a quiet chorus, and then to a loud rocker chorus/outro. A rocker bit follows and then we're treated to a quieter, ambient sort of mini-song to bridge into the second track. And with that, our first track is over with. Great opener.

The second song, "The Royal We" picks up with your usual SSPU instrumentation with some extra orchestration in the background. Cool stuff. Rocking, effects-laden, fuzzed-out pre-chorus into an alt. rock chorus. Great stuff. We then return to the verse. The song goes on in typical SSPU fashion. The sound is a bit different than on Canavaras, but this is their second album and they're coming into their own. In this second track, it might have been a better idea to turn down the guitars a bit and allow some of the other instrumentation to shine. That's my only gripe with this song. It comes to a sudden finish.

"Growing Old is Getting Old", the third track, begins with a cool bass line to a 4/4 bass drum. The other instrumentation moves around in the background. I knew from the start this one would be picking up later The guitar comes up several times with U2-like riffs. Bassist Nikki Monninger lends some backing vocals that accent Aubert's vocals quite well. I'd love to hear her sing a track on her own. Halfway through, the song begins to pick up. To me, the bass still shines and I love it. Kudos to Chris Guanlao for that drum beat. Of course, there's your effects-laden typica-SSPU solo. This is one where Aubert could have scaled it back and allow for the vocal "aaaaah's" in the solo.

"It's Nice To Know You Work Alone" opens with the bass line at the front once again. Sounds great. The guitar comes in with an...almost Joy Division-esque guitar tone before moving into a distorted tone. It sounds like Monninger and Aubert take turns with vocals in the verse. Sounds cool and a bit trippy. Aubert again lends a pretty solo to the song. The orchestration is heard in the background--sounds cool. The violins screeching up to end the track is a cool touch.

With this, we're already at the halfway point--the first single "Panic Switch". Fuzzed-out guitars open the track before breaking into a synth-y riff. Kudos to Nikki for the rocking bass lines. The riff at 37 seconds--jeez. As a guitarist, I couldn't even tell you what Aubert has on his pedalboard. Pre-chorus gets fuzzy once again. The chorus sounds like something I've heard before--not bad by any means, but the melody doesn't sound very inventive as much as the instrumentation is. The bridge allows the bass line to have its' moment before picking up into one of your SSPU solos. Then bridge --> chorus and outro --> some noise to end the track.

"Draining" picks up at a slower tempo. Guitar arpeggios to light bass. The melody follows the guitar riffs in the verse. Changes for the pre-chorus--a bit more ambient--same to be said for the chorus. U2-like riffs are present once again. Sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm commenting on a pre-chorus, chorus, or bridge. The structure of these songs are somewhat tricky. Orchestration mixes with "aaahhh's". Again, cool stuff. The outro gets a lot slower--cymbal tic's and drum sticks. Droning 2-bass plucks and some effects to end us off.

Our seventh track, "Sort Of" picks up sounding like a noise-driven track, but it's not the case. The melody assures you of that. Not much to be said--a track that sounds like some of the others on this album. Chorus gets louder and sounds a lot like a 90's Pumpkins track. I do like the pre-chorus guitar riff though. Very cool snare-driven drum beat in the bridge with the guitar solo into a noise jam before heading to the pre-chorus.

Number eight, "Substitution" began with a surprisingly lightly distorted guitar riff that reminded me of Pearl Jam for some particular reason. This moved into a more distorted pre-chorus and chorus before returning for another verse. The bridge sounds like something I've heard before in an alt. rock song. The solo is a cool one, much lighter than any other I've heard on this album. The levels are just right. You hear the guitar riffs and the bass line still punches through. Back for another verse, pre-chorus, chorus, and noise outro to end the track.

"Catch and Release" also is a surprise. No fuzz just yet. The guitar riff comes in and shortly after Aubert's vocals. Yet another cool bass line from Monninger comes in with some ambient sounds I can only assume comes from keyboardist Joe Lester. I can't say enough good things about Guanlao's drumming. This is a song that stays quieter. A nice change-up in the album.

At last, we are on our last track, "Surrounded (Spiraling)". I was expecting a noisy number by the sounds of the guitar, but I was fooled. Despite these strange guitar tones, Aubert's melodies diffuse them and make them work. This song is heavier than the last number, yet still a good one. Sounds like another 90's Pumpkins track. There's a quieter bridge featuring arpeggio's under some distorted tones. The solo sounds like something from another song, yet the guitars under it assured me it wasn't. The guitar in the bit after this sounds like something out the Pumpkins' "Today" but we return to the chorus. "Is it perfect in our little hell?" Aubert questions as the album ends.

I enjoyed this album very much, easily worth a listen. I believe I did get picky in some regards, but a solid album overall. I'd have to say the first half of the album was a bit stronger, but Silversun Pickups fans won't be disappointed--I know I wasn't. Also, with the expanded sound, this album will most likely appeal to a variety of fans--some who like completely different genres and such. I'm looking forward to perhaps a bit more expansion on the next album.