Silversun Pickups - Broken Bottles
When I hear that an EP is being put out between albums, made up of leftover tracks from the previous album, I usually think “okay, sure, a few b-sidey meanders, whatever.” I’m now prepared to reserve that judgement until after hearing the songs on these releases in the future. My word.
Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye (Jimmy Tamborello Accordion Remix)
I did that thing again where I sat down with the intention of posting something completely different and then thought “hey, what about this?”. If you’re familiar with the original version of this song, you’ll see that this is a completely different take. I’m a touch disappointed that the song morphs into a more traditional synth laden remix, but the opening half with just the vocals, beats and accordion are such a stark comparison to the squalling album version I remember it being like hearing the song for the first time all over again when I got a hold of this version.
Silversun Pickups
30th September 2010, The Hordern Pavilion
It’s not the best photo I took, but it’s the best summary I can give of the sadly all too brief set they played.
Silversun Pickups - Surrounded (or Spiraling)
I’ve already posted The Royal We if you wanted to check that one.
Silversun Pickups - Swoon
I have, surprisingly, my brother to thank for this. I bought Guitar Hero World Tour earlier this year, and ‘Lazy Eye’ by this band is on there, and my brother would play that one over and over again. I really, really grew to like it. But I also, mostly, have the fellows behind Crumbler to thank because they posted when MTV put the video for ‘Panic Switch’ online, and I basically just played that on repeat all day at work, and then again at home, and then realised that I was could actually, you know, purchase this stuff. So, me being me, in my fit of excitement, pre-ordered the deluxe vinyl version which came with a t-shirt, stickers, buttons, a lithograph, sexy double LP, over-sized lyrics booklet all in a beautiful box.
But that’s all just so much packaging. The music here is really good. Every now and then I surprise myself by liking something so much, and this is one of those things. Not because it’s not worth liking, but I keep thinking back to the me ten years ago who would only rarely listen to anything if it wasn’t at least sung by a woman, but preferably one playing the piano.
Again, putting words behind this one is surprisingly difficult. There’s a lot of raw emotion on there, but it kind of creeps up on you. The sound is stunning - its thick and rich and squalling, but it walks the line really well and never becomes messy or overwhelming. It’s much more refined than their first album (which, yes, I did pick up after a few months of over-listening to this one), but not overproduced by any means. There’s a good flow across the album as well in the way the songs are ordered. My one tiny, tiny issue with it is that the little “title track” interstitial between opener ‘There’s No Secrets This Year’ and personal favourite ‘The Royal We’ is (on CD) attached to the end of the first rather than the beginning of the latter where it would be a much more suitable fit, especially given that they perform it live that way. But it’s largely a technicality that I’ve managed to deal with so far, and if I really got desperate I could chop the files up myself, and I haven’t so it’s clearly just me looking for something to complain about.
In a sentence: it’s quality, interesting rock.
