The first things to address here are all of the comparisons to The Smashing Pumpkins; simply not warranted. I guess anyone who uses clean-tone, Gibson Les Pauls on a rock record will have to suffer this lazy name-drop throughout all of the near future. You can thank Siamese Dream for that. Of course, were you to cast that bogus link aside, you would see that Silversun Pickups’ latest slab of spacey, alterna-rock has more in common with the greats of the genre; instead of Billy Corgan’s ego machine, let’s try Dinosaur Jr., Hum, My Bloody Valentine, and maybe even Sunny Day Real Estate…wait, how about U2 with some balls? Yeah, this is a good record, maybe even a great one and a hell of a step forward from Canvas.

There are some unique elements that all work here to create what adds up to one of the most complete and ambitious rock albums of the year. Let’s start with the songwriting. It can be hard to write long songs that remain interesting throughout, but Swoon showcases a band comfortable with restraint and wandering, a truly difficult juxtaposition to pull off properly. And over all of the layered guitars and pulsing rhythms hang the semi-creepy, but intensely affecting vocals of Brian Aubert. And Aubert is what completes the picture here; his versatility is key to the band’s sound and is one of the most complete rock voices I’ve heard in years. A lot of times, a band like this can feature one great member backed by a bunch of competent, but ultimately forgettable sidekicks. Aubert may be the key ingredient here, but the rest of the band works hard to fill in the spaces with subtle but amazingly memorable and moving sonic pieces.

The only complaint that could be levied at Swoon might be that it begins to bleed together, though even that is a stretch. People often confuse sameness with consistency, something Silversun Pickups’ previous releases lacked. With Swoon, a promising band that could very easily have turned in a cash grabbing second full-length after the success of “Lazy Eye” has really shown that there’s something to pay attention to and that’s refreshing in an indie-rock scene that is putting more and more emphasis on not succumbing to the sophomore slump. Well, no worries; Swoon won’t receive that tag.

Label: Dangerbird

The Royal We

02%20The%20Royal%20We.mp3

www.myspace.com/silversunpickups