Disappointments and Guilty Pleasures
Small Sins’ eponymous debut album of 2006 was ‘one pleasant surprise’, as Benom might say. I still go back to it frequently. It is groovy, an easy listen that is fun and enjoyable.
Which is why I’m disappointed by their 2007 release (officially launched in late September). The band still loves synthesizers, but their sophomore effort just doesn’t feel good. Maybe I need to give Tom D’Arcy some slack. Maybe I haven’t listened to it enough.
After all, I’ll admit that I’ve only given it a couple good listens, but the songs just don’t hit me the way the first record did. They don’t flow together in an easy, front-to-back listen, and I find myself cringing when I get to the middle of the album.
The record even starts out well. The first track, I Need a Friend, picks up where the last record ended with a groovy, rolling synthesizer. I kinda like the choir effect in the 2nd track too, though the choral effect doesn’t reveal itself in this live version from Easy Street Records.
But the third track yields an awful falsetto refrain from hell, “…But You Know What Your Baby’s Been Doing…” and at that point, I’m scratching my head and trying to fast forward the song.
Then, track four finds D’Arcy mining the Bay City Rollers and a bit of ELO for inspiration in the rocking ‘On the Line’, which isn’t a bad thing if they could carry it off. But it falls short for me.
Track five, ‘Prove Me Wrong’, brings any remaining momentum to a screeching halt. It is discordant, unpleasant, everything this band should not be. Prove Me Wrong sounds like Frog Eyes on luudes.
The next track, Drunk Email, has funny lyrics, but sonically it stinks. It isn’t pleasing to my ears.
D’Arcy & Co rally a bit after this. On the Run gets the record back on track. And it hums along until the final track, when a sloooow slide guitar is used to accompany the love song Bullet.
On the other hand, KT Tunstall’s latest, Drastic Fantastic, which was also released in September, is quite enjoyable. She is clearly focused on pop music, but her songwriting ability and her sound, which shares a bit of Bonnie Raitt and a bit of the one-hit wonder Sin-dead Lohan, isn’t all bubble gum in its perspective.
I never really got burned out on her debut record, which may mean I’m fortunate for not listening to the radio too much anymore. But I qualify this one a guilty pleasure still. I’m not supposed to like KT Tunstall because the media jammed her down the public’s collective throat after her catchy debut.
And the sound of this record is rather slick. Rolling Stone called it high-gloss folk pop. Can’t disagree.
But after a couple listens to DF, I’m not turned off either.
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[…] Disappointments and Guilty Pleasures She is clearly focused on pop music, but her songwriting ability and her sound, which shares a bit of Bonnie Raitt and a bit of the one-hit wonder Sin-dead Lohan, isn’t all bubble gum in its perspective. … […]