Album Reviews

Silversun Pickups are something of an acquired taste. I missed out on 2006’s “Carnavas” but was instantly smitten with the fuzzed-out guitarscapes heavily indebted to Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine, that made up 2009’s “Swoon”. There’s something about Brian Aubert’s whine coupled to that wall of sound that washes over you that I found irresistible.

Exactly three years later these guys are back with “Neck Of The Woods”, their darkest and most brooding album to date and one that plays like a horror movie. It still owes a lot to the Pumpkins but apparently the Pickups have been messing around with electronic sounds and it shows. Producer Jacknife Lee (Bloc Party, R.E.M.) probably had something to do with that as well. And so songs like “Busy Bee” come with danceable beats and “The Pit” sounds like a great song Depeche Mode didn’t come round to writing just yet.

Okay, so they are a revivalist band and yes, you’ve heard all of this before… but they take their ideas from the best and have taken it upon themselves to blow new life into a genre I grew up with and love, made it their own and continue to build from there.