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Label: Dangerbird - Rating:
Once a year, an album is released that revolutionizes the way music can be made, heard, written, played, and forever noticed. On July 26th 2006, the band Silversun Pickups achieved this with their album “Carnavas.”
With the chaotic give-and-take relationship between guitar and vocals which resembles the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Who, and the overwhelming melody created by the interface between the soft underlying keyboard tones, and the delayed chorus sounds of the guitar that could remind us of early Rush, mixed with the orchestration of a film score.
Formed in Los Angeles in the year 2000, Silversun Pickups has a musical style that I personally haven’t found in any other artist. The vocals are so melodic that they are almost infectious, and you find yourself dying to hear more. The aspect that sets them apart the most is the same thing that made bands like The Beatles and The Who as great as they are, which is that you can hear the band is made up of friends, rather than manufactured by a need for musical outlet, they were just a band of brothers trying to make something beautiful in a world full of filth.
Although they released an EP named Pikul, Carnavas is Silversun Pickups first full length album. The title of the album is said to be derived from the lead singers Greek heritage. Carnavas begins with the track “Melatonin,” which takes its name from the sleeping medicine. The first lines if the song set the tone of the album” She ran into the wall, so sweet and unknown.” The album seems to focus on the concept of struggling through the difficult parts of life, and coming out of them with a smile on your face.
The next song (which was the bands first single) is called “Well Though Out Twinkles.” One of the heavier songs on the album, with a straighter foreword rock style, Twinkles also resembles the theme of getting over the past by focusing on the decent aspects of life. When listening to the song, you can almost feel the emotions of the writer. The lyrics “What was that scar situated from afar, Wait for that sign spilling over and passed in time.” You experience what was once his sorrow, but find relief in the music, much like I’m sure he did as well.
The hit song of the album is called “Lazy Eye.” It has been widely popularized by both the Guitar Hero, and the Rock Band video game franchises. Like the other two songs, its lyrics set the tone of the album. And thought is has a very upbeat sound, the lyrics are quite the opposite. “It's impossible if possible, At who's blind word, So clear but so unheard.”
Overall, the album is outstanding, filled with the angst every body loves to listen too, but not enough to annoy you. As pure as early Modest Mouse, and reminiscent of Floater. They are a band that has found a way to remind me why the concept of modern music is not a completely lost cause. I give this album a 4/4 Guns, and a permanent spot on my Ipod's "Top 25 Most Played" playlist.
