Review Summary: Sometimes sounding like the past makes you sound original.
The opening couple seconds of this album has the unmistakable sound of a needle being dropped onto a record. The disc of the cd is printed to look like a vinyl record. The Pink Spiders are aware of how retro-inspired they are with this album. There’s even something about the melodies that seems to call back to a time older than any of the members. It isn’t even the more obvious parts, like the occasional “do-wops”. It’s a motif that’s buried deeper than the album. The band is rooted in it.
“Stereo Speakers” is a strong album opener. Short and sweet, it introduces the listener to the sound to be expected on the rest of the album. Fun, energetic, treble-heavy. “Teenage Graffiti” continues this trend, erring a little more on the punk side of the band. “Knock Knock” is a little annoying at times, but the prechorus is one of the most retro moments of the album.
This brings us to the most repayable song on the album, in my opinion. “Going Steady” is a melodic beast in under minutes. Literally every aspect of this song is catchy. Lyrically it’s sleazy, and fun, and Matt Friction being as sexy as he can be. The tone of the guitar solo is really neat too.
“Hollywood Fix” is another good track and a strong follow up, again showcasing the bands retro-inspired gusto. It is easy to see why “Modern Swinger” wound up getting rerecorded on the follow up to this album. The chorus is just extremely strong. Lyrically it’s probably the most clever the album gets. “My baby’s pretty as a car crash / Sexy as the stinger of a hornet in your arm / Just another modern swinger” and “I think I’m tapping out / I’m gonna skip the title bout” are just really strong and really interesting phrasing.
“Talk Hard” is something of an anomaly. The verses have an odd mix of ska and, dare I say it, Eastern European / gypsy punk elements. This is brought to an abrupt end by the closest to metal that the Pink Spiders get on this album with the chorus. It’s peculiar, kind of like the screaming in the bridge of the song “Lovers Into Ghosts” from the previous EP, The Pink Spiders are Taking Over. The bridge of “Talk Hard” comes back to the retro-garage-pop-punk style, before abruptly jumping back into the chorus.
Unlike “Modern Swinger,” I’m not sure why “Little Razorblade” was picked as a rerecorded track for the next album. It’s one of the weaker tracks on the album. It’s very slow and over 4 minutes long. Those are two very un-The Pink Spiders traits. The song is easy to get bored during.
As far as instruments are concerned, the band is good, not phenomenal, not awful, but good. Perfect, in fact, for the style of music and the music of the style they try so hard to cultivate. Listen to a garage band of the 60s. Do you hear that bass? Me neither. The bassist isn’t doing anything mind blowing, but he is doing his job, as far as I can tell when I can hear him at least (“Modern Swinger”). Matt Friction does show his skill at playing guitar in the several guitar solos littering the album. It’s refreshing to listen to punk music with guitar solos. Like so much on this album, this is an echo of a previous time. There are enough drum fills to remind you that the drummer is actually a human being. The lofi nature of all the instruments blends well. It doesn’t feel lofi for the sake of lofi, which is just too common in the post-2000 music scene. Production quality can mask musical quality, both if it’s too present as well as not present enough. Luckily, the lack of sparkle and sheen to the album never holds it back, it adds to the overall feel. The inclusion of the occasional synth is interesting. One would typically think that the synth is a symbol of that sleek and sheen feel of an overproduced album. This never mars the Pink Spiders. It comes off more like an influence from the Cars than anything, which is helped by the fact that Ric Ocasek produced the follow-up to this album, Teenage Graffiti.
The album takes the point of view of the “bad boy” of the 50s. This isn’t an album about relationships, it’s about hook ups. It never comes off as cliché or like Matt Friction is a scum bag, even at his least romantic (“Going Steady”). The album only has a handful of boring moments, most of which are towards the end of the album. The fun tracks make up for it and make this an album I would happily recommend and relisten to at almost any moment. At their peak, I feel like the Pink Spiders were marketed to fans of pop-punk. I don’t think this did them justice. I would recommend this to fans of garage rock. It is way more of a garage rock album than a pop punk album.
Writing this convinced me to try and find / buy the vinyl version now. I can probably trick people into thinking I found a band that was really progressive for 1962.
Recommended tracks: Modern Swinger, Going Steady, Soft Smoke, Hollywood Fix
