Album Review: Swoon

now playing: Silversun Pickups - Dream at Tempo 119

I, like many others, first discovered LA's Silversun Pickups from their song "Lazy Eye" appearing in Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour. Two other songs from 2006's Carnavas, "Melatonin" and "Well Thought Out Twinkles", came out for Rock Band 2 shortly after; it was the latter that convinced me to give Carnavas a shot. It's not a move I regret in the slightest. When I found out that Silversun Pickups had another album in the works, I had to get my hands on it, and here we are with Swoon, their second full-length album, coming out on independent label Dangerbird.

It's clear from the first track that Silversun Pickups have spent the last three years working on their sound. While Carnavas had a few tracks that stood out, it never really clicked cohesively for me; Swoon, however, flows much better and is overall a much more accessible album. And yet for all that's changed, so much has stayed the same. For example, the strong bass lines that initially drew me to "Well Thought Out Twinkles" are still present, coming out most prominently in "Growing Old is Getting Old", "Catch & Release", and the first single, "Panic Switch". Vocalist/guitarist Brian Aubert seems to have taken his singing down a notch, though: He has strayed from this strange sense of androgyny the first album had and now sounds like something that would do well on alt-rock radio in the mid-to-late 90s. The good thing is that this works very well in making Silversun Pickups more accessible and can only help their popularity from here.

Perhaps the greatest feat is how this album manages to sound almost mercurial at times and still be suited for almost everyone. Aubert makes a sport out of toying with the listener, switching from fantastically calm to face-rippingly chunky and aggressive from track to track and often even in the same song. This is nothing new to the band, of course; I'm just glad to see that that hasn't changed. See, for example, "Growing Old", which starts serene and halfway through turns into a sonic assault in the best way possible. But that's not the only way Swoon handles slower tracks; in fact, if the song starts calm, most of the time it will stay that way. That's something I really enjoy, because I've been waiting for a great album to relax to for a while. Easily half the tracks on Swoon fulfill that criterion.

Still, there are a few caveats. Swoon has a couple tracks that fall flat for me ("Draining", "Substitution"); in these cases, the songs sound too little like Silversun Pickups' previous work, which makes them seem out of place in the grand scheme of things. In some places, the breathing is too noticeable, which can annoy me if I focus on it for too long. My biggest worry is that all the songs clock in on the high end of four minutes at the shortest. Listeners might feel weighed down by the album or think that some tracks are dragging.

If you're looking for a distinct maturation in Silversun Pickups' sound, Swoon is the album for you. If you've never heard a single Silversun song before, I have to recommend this album likewise. It's a great introduction to the band and it easily rises to meet the expectations Carnavas set. I am also nominating it for the Chillest Album of the Year. B+

Swoon comes out April 14th. Preorder it now on Amazon or iTunes, and don't forget to check out the band's site to see what they've got planned. If you got tickets to Coachella, you can see Silversun Pickups there; otherwise, they're currently touring London.