Fat Possum
With a debut that rivalled Exploding Hearts’ Guitar Romantic as one of the finest power-pop LPs of the last decade expectations for Chicago’s Smith Westerns run high. Indeed its 2009 HoZac-released offering even at its worst was magical: Burying deliciously addictive melodies under lo-fi grunge it recalled the magical sensation of hearing the Buzzcocks or Undertones for the first time (that is on a hand-me-down mixtape from your best friend’s older brother). But at its best the group hinted at greater possibilities from the grass-stained prep academy pop (“Boys are Fine”) to glammed-out Thin Lizzy-esque balladry (“Girl in Love”).
So it’s hardly surprising that its sophomore release is an evolution — the band is still in its teenage years after all. But for Smith Westerns Dye it Blonde is a quantum leap forward. Here the band’s raw sugar has been refined and aside from the occasional blown tube-amp guitar lead this is pure lucid-dreaming bliss. Swapping its puerile glue buzz for a pillowy Valium haze this is puppy-lovin’ buried in sleepy drive-in ballads (“Dye the World”) piano-driven yacht club skippers (“Imagine Part 3”) and smooth jangly dance-floor movers (“Dance Away”). But its most jaw-dropping moment comes courtesy of “All Die Young” a mid-album track that drifts in lazily to church organs swoons to soothing slide guitars before climbing to spine-tingling all-in gospel apex. Converting a feathery light melody into a gorgeous anthem it’s a song that at four minutes feels cut painfully short. This isn’t glam as Pitchfork suggested; instead it’s grandiose pop that outgrew its garage origins.
Most impressive however is the album’s balance of consistency — there isn’t a single skip track amongst its 10 offerings — and sophisticated layering suggesting that there’s plenty more to be unearthed upon repeated listens. Dye it Blonde’s real achievement however is in managing to capture a feeling; it’s not nostalgic like plenty of its dream-pop peers but rather it perfectly re-creates the sensation of being young and in love. And while plenty tread in those same waters Smith Westerns possess that all-crucial X factor: authenticity. This is the first essential album of 2011.
