Polyvinyl
2010
I saw these guys back in January. They put on a really fun live show. Or maybe it was just because I was drunk and the songs they play are really fun. Who knows. They played some new songs at the show, and I thought they were kind of ho-hum. I honestly didn't have high hopes for this record to be any good, but I was really pleasantly surprised.
The opening song "Back in the Saddle" starts out misleading. It sounds so quiet and boring, but the song picks up. I think they should have excluded it from this album, because it's kind of a weak song. "Sink/Let it Sway" is a great second song, and is classic SSLYBY. It's a fun pop melody which is what this band is expert at crafting. The record continues through some more pop songs, "Banned By the Man" is another classic SSLYBY jam, "In Pairs" is a little more adventurous, "Everylyn" has a really catchy melody, "Stuart Gets Lost dans Le Metro" is a great acoustic jam; So while the songs are really good, this record really fails to go anywhere. It's like Pershing part two. Don't get me wrong I really liked Pershing and I'm glad that this record doesn't let you down, but this band really isn't switching anything up.
I really liked Broom- I still think that's SSLYBY's best record yet. I'm thinking I really dug how unpolished the sound was on the record. I don't know why I've developed such an aversion to a high level of polish maybe there's a bit of punk inside me? I guess I really like how raw band's first records always sound. There's something exciting about how it's just cobbled together and it's developing into something else. Sometimes that unpolished, cobbled together recording style works really well for bands (it did for Guided By Voices) and when they spend too much time and energy it comes out sounding all wrong (like Do The Collapse). I think SSLYBY might be one of those bands. Oh yeah, I think this record rocks in the car or bus too, what ever you are driving.
3.5 out of 5 steering wheels. It's good, but not mindblowing.
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