SMITH WESTERNS - Dye It Blonde

Produced by Chris Coady, “Dye It Blonde” is the second album by Smith Westerns.

Compared to the self-titled debut, the sound has become decidedly cleaner (after all, this time they recorded in a proper studio, in New York!) and the songs form a fairly homogeneous picture (even if the quality is a bit uneven), confirming perfectly the definition chosen to describe their music: lo-fi garage-glam.

Still intimately sun-drenched, their music is this time influenced - as stated by singer-guitarist Cullen Omori - by the britpop of the Nineties (the names that came up were Oasis, Suede and Teenage Fanclub), though there's no shortage of nods to T. Rex and the Seventies Bowie. Catchy and just psychedelic enough, “Weekend”'s songwriting doesn't aim too high, enriched with traces of jingle-jangle on “Still New” and “Fallen In Love”, hints of vaudeville on “End Of The Night”, choral textures and romantic emphasis going hand in hand with a pent-up electricity (“Smile”, “All Die Young”) or with dancey moves in ultrateen mode (“Dance Away”).

Rounded out by Max Kakacek on the other guitar, Hal James on drums and Cameron Omori on bass, the Chicago band sails with genuine conviction along the main line of an aurea mediocritas. Many will say they have no ambitions because they don't want any. Fine, good for them... but honestly, I don't think these little songs (including the small rollercoaster of “Imagine Pt. 3” and the lovely ballad of “Only One”) can go very far...

Signs of the times, unfortunately.

Ride the wave of great music

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30/12/2010