Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent debut, 1 Jul 2007
Lots of Smashing Pumpkins comparisons for Silversun Pickups which are valid but the mix of fuzzy basslines, honeysweet vocals and just the right amount of guitar makes this album a joy and a bit of a dark horse. There is a fair amount of variety across the 11 tracks and whilst Smashing Pumpkins spring to mind quickly, scratch the surface and other influences and styles are evident.
For me, there are three absolute standout tracks. The awesome Lazy Eye, built around a driving bassline and layered guitars with a stretched vocal, built to a crescendo then brought back under control. Just an excellent 6 minutes that will reverberate around your mind once you have heard it. Little Lover's So Polite fizzes with fuzz and drips with decadence but underneath it all is a simple pop song. The closer Common Reactor is the third standout track, again a great pop song given a quirky twist.
Silversun Pickups may not be the most original band you will ever hear, but what they do, they do very very well and apparently with great sincerity.
If you are a fan of Smashing Pumpkins, Buffalo Tom, MBV, or anything similar, this record merits further investigation.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Silver suns, 15 Jul 2007
The Silversun Pickups are definitely classic-grunge revivalists -- much of the time, they sound like gauze-wrapped version of a very solid grunge band. With those nice grimy, twisty riffs, "Carnavas" is a nice, rockin' little debut album with some pleasant creative moments.
It opens with the buzzing basslines and choral voices of "Melatonin," buzzing and murmuring through a moderately epic melody. "She ran into the wall/so sweet and unknown/a worn comatose," Brian Aubert croons in a high, mellow voice that sounds pleasantly Billy Corganish.
But things get harder with the sizzling smash-it-down quality of "Well Thought Out Twinkies," blasting thunderbass over a bed of solid drums. From there, they dabble in other grungey styles -- grimy slow-burners, elusively shimmery rockers, and even a catchy, relatively mellow guitar-pop song or two.
It's easy to compare the Silversun Pickups to the Smashing Pumpkins, but they don't really sound too much like them (especially since there's no "wall of bass" sound here). Their music has a solidarity of its own, and there are moments that hint at future expansion -- epic riffs, the interplay of the instruments, and the haunted air of the whole thing.
Musically, it has some good tight rock rhythms -- sprawling, gauzy, dirty riffs and roiling basslines, paired with smashing drums and a sublte interplay of keyboard and riffs. But some songs dispense with the bass for the time being, and use ethereal, fragile-sounding synth waves instead.
Aubert has a nice, smooth voice that is has a pleasantly androgynous sound, and he never gets buried in the solid rock sound here. The lyrics do need work, though -- they tend to be rather simplistic ("and it feels just like the ground/and trapped in another way/just still in the ground"), and could use a more refinement.
The Silversun Pickups are still rough in "Carnavas," but they show some good musical skills and plenty of promise. Solid full-length debut.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Melodic Grunge Revivalists , 25 Jan 2008
Ah yes, this is my `alternative' American indie rock album of the 2007. Silversun Pickups come from Los Angeles and have delivered the best guitar noise album of the year by miles. Like a more melodic and less annoying `Smashing Pumpkins', Carnavas is a great record. It's very powerful, kicks some dust and actually has something to say.
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