With a name like Smith Westerns and an album title called "Dye It Blonde", I thought this would be a band that I would dislike. Yet, lo and behold, I find a good pop sound and melodies that hit you the first time as if they were songs you already knew irresistable. I got sucked in by the midtempo ballads with singalong choruses, pounding piano, and swooping organ, and a loose, frayed-around-the-edges, feel. The production by Chris Coady plays up the strengths of the band like the boyish lead vocals, the super hooky choruses, and the great guitar work. Everything blends together perfectly without sounding glossy or overcooked, and the guitar tone is especially nice, totally overdriven but super compressed with plenty of punch. Of course a sound without songs is like a pretty homebaked cake that tastes like Dolly Madison, and the band deliver a batch of them here that make the total package quite tasty. The rockers like "Weekend," "Dance Away," and "Imagine, Pt.3" have a pleasing swagger, the midtempo tracks (like "Fallen in Love" and "End of the Night") bounce along happily, and the ballads have all kinds of ragged soul. Sounding both end-of-the-night epic and heartbreakingly sad, these songs provide some depth that the first record didn’t have.
For me, much of the album is reminiscent of Electric Light Orchestra without the strings. Dye It Blonde may be a step away from the lo-fi bedroom sound toward the mainstream, but it’s a small step, and they retain more than enough of the songcraft and attitude to keep things interesting. Anyone who liked the debut and was filled with apprehension about what would happen next will be pleasantly surprised, and might even end up liking this record more.
Take a listen to "Still New", a song so sweet that it makes me involuntarily sway and feel that inner happy.
Get your own copy of Dye It Blonde here.
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