REVIEW: The Smithereens, God Save the Smithereens (Velvel/Koch)
- Don Share
The title alludes to an old Reprise Records campaign to reawaken interest in The Kinks following a few hard and low key years when, forsaking hits, Ray Davies turned out masterpieces, instead. The Smithereens have similarly just emerged from a 5-year period of fragmentation, dormancy, and scrambling for a record label. Here they are again, with their sixth album, which for this reason and that almost never happened.
It's an unusual album, too. This time around, all four members of the band contributed to the songwriting; this being a band whose work and career is full of analogues to '60s counterparts, maybe it's worth pointing out that this was the case at the end of Creedence Clearwater's string of albums, as well. At any rate, God Save the Smithereens is tinged with a compelling combination of darkness and pent-up excitement.
With the first track, we're in familiar territory: "She's Got a Way" is good old-fashioned, hook-laden, single-from-the-album material. But right away, with "House at the End of the World," which is a male/female duet, things are less British Invasion and more Imperial Bedroom. Ominous lyrics and music characterize the track, as they also do the striking "Flowers in Blood" and "Try" -- some of this is as dark and textured as the Posies used to get in their murkier moments. Not a bad thing, but it's disconcerting to hear in our beloved Smithereens!
There are still the homages to pop from the past we've come to cherish, though. "The Long Loneliness" is almost like Martin Newell (worth checking out, if you haven't heard of him); it features a pounding Mike Mesaros bass line to match the strong lyric: "I broke the rules thoughout the book..." Meanwhile, "Someday" has the Beatles-esque phrase, "things we did today," which is a bit distracting, while "The Age of Innocence" is more Kinks than Edith Wharton, with its Something Else-style trombone and handclaps. Meanwhile, "All Revved Up" is a cousin to the Beach Boys' "Dance, Dance, Dance," while "Even If I Never Get Back Home" is a little like the Move, though Roy Wood never sounded so grim.
But beyond these familiar touches, it's a strange, unsettling album, and strangest of all is a version of Billie Holiday's classic "Gloomy Sunday," which Pat DiNizio makes his own: a diminishment, alas, through no fault of his. Tellingly, on "I Believe," DiNizio sings, "There just has to be more to this life than the will to survive." Since God Save the Smithereens provides ample proof that the band has indeed survived, you have to wonder what the implications are; on the closer, "The Last Good Time," the words, "Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye," are chanted. This is a band that deserves more than survival, to be sure. While this album is a distant descendent of the great Especially For You, Green Thoughts, and 11, let's hope there's more to come.
