REVIEW: Sonichrome, Breathe The Daylight (Capitol)
- Tracey Bleile
The name of the band and the title itself are verrry deceiving
- you half-expect ambient techno to come oozing out at you. What you get from the latest and greatest power trio to surface from SoCal is a super-surprising breath of fresh air - only it's a hit of pure oxygen instead of mere gentle ocean breezes. Like their pop forerunners; oh, say the Cars, or the Knack, or Squeeze, it's deceptively simple - but if you lean in just a little closer, you'll be in it up to your ears.Breathe The Daylight features some of the smartest and sharpest foisting of poppiness upon the world (I haven't felt this giddy since Supergrass) yet this year. They have gathered all the right elements of songcraft -- take some drama ("Step Outside", "There Was 2"), a strong steady pace ("Overconfident", "Dirty Water"), and gracefully balance the punches with softness ("Coming Home" and "Folding" with their John Waite/Babys' era feel points up the substance behind the sound). Then take these key elements, polish it to a modern gloss with just enough synth and effects (their nod to alien abduction in "Saloman" will have you scanning the skies, ready to be taken away) to complement Chris Karn's by turns tremulous/soaring tenor, and you've got a sound with all of the emotion and very little triteness that does just what intends, hooks you and keeps you.
Sonichrome incorporates a lot of atypical instruments (bring on the strings and tympani and a little barrelhouse piano while you're up...I swear, on the super-bouncy "Innocent Journey" they've got a whole Dixieland band in the studio), and bring a thoroughly fresh perspective on "modern music" - transcending boundaries that shouldn't exist between musical styles anyway. This is the kind of smart pop that should be right up front and center and all over the airwaves - we'll just have to see what the fall brings. Word on the street is their live show leaves out all of the extra orchestra trappings and still delivers the goods - in full.
This strikes me as the kind of band that has been working this angle for a long time, and had the sound down and tight - all they needed was a really good studio and solid backing to jump everything up that extra notch to make them live up to the name - bright shiny winks of talent bouncing off a polished song to dazzle, nay, even blind you from time to time. This is a disc that needs to stay near at hand when winter comes and you need the warmth of Sonichrome's sunny, energized sound to melt away what ever might have you in its icy grip.
