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What’s the 4-1-1?
The rock trio returns to follow up their gold self titled debut album
with 15 new musical selections.
Genre
Rock / punk rock / grunge
The Good
The band mixes a traditional rock and roll sound with some punk rock and even
grunge influences. The trio format serves the band well since they sound rather
exceptionally tight as a unit.
They’ve got some excellent songs here, and they draw from a variety of
sources to create that material. Sean Danielson, the guitarist/vocalist, has
a definitive outlook for crafting the lyrics. They are mostly drawn from a darkly
critical viewpoint, particularly on songs dealing with some modern day issues.
He sings “Proud To Be” from the angle of a belligerently ignorant
redneck blindly following the current state of thinking in the country.
He also
criticizes the current trend of politicians using the issue of religious faith
as a political tool in the song “God’s Army.” The song is a
slow, methodical song delivered with an understated, yet burning intensity in
the vocals.
It’s not a one-note point of view in the music though. “Never Again” is
an excellent rock track with lyrics that look to trying to view life in a more
upbeat manner.
The best songs on the CD are the flat out rock track “Saturday,” “Holes,” and
the track that deals (at least to my ear) with the issue of cutting called “Self-Inflicted.” The
song is my favorite on the album. It rocks hard, but obviously deals with some
dark issues. With lyrics like “I cut myself just to feel the pain” and “I’m
going down and no one can save me”, the song won’t be the theme to
any high school proms, but if you want a song that accomplishes the task of confronting
an issue yet still comes out as a great rock song, this track is a pretty good
one to listen to.
The Bad
The songs I didn’t much care for struck me as just rang kind of flat to
my ears. I just didn’t find much to say about songs like “Fight Of
A Suburban Couple”, “Refill Me” and “Not Alright.”
The Verdict
I’m not normally a fan of anything resembling punk rock, whether the
70’s version or the modern version of what’s considered punk music.
I think Green Day has changed that opinion a bit with their American Idiot
album, but I found that if they take that influence and combine it with the
more tradition hard rock song, no matter how dark the lyrical content, a band
can turn out a pretty fine collection of tunes.
Smile Empty Soul did that here. They use influences ranging from Alice In Chains,
Queens of the Stone Age, At The Drive In and more. They take those, mix in their
own spin on things and come up with an album that should continue to expand the
fan base they created from their first album.
Did You Know?
Anxiety was recorded at the Suburban Hell studio in Saugus, California.
Smile Empty Soul has toured with the likes of Jane’s Addiction, Puddle
of Mudd, Deftones and Seether.
Drummer Dominic Weir is new to the group. He replaced the long time drummer Derek
Gledhill, who parted with the group following the conclusion of the tour for
their first CD.
Rating:  out
of 5
-- Jay Roberts
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SMILE
EMPTY SOUL
