Review Summary: Maybe the Sick Puppies are caught in their own riptide and are unfortunately going down... see what I did there?
As soon as I caught wind of my fellow Australian natives the Sick Puppies were releasing a follow-up to their 2009 effort Tri-Polar I was a little excited. Tri-Polar had enough above average tracks to function as a passable release from a band who are capable of writing a catchy tune. I expected that after such a release the trio might attempt to expand to bigger and better feats, unfortunately the majority of their new record Connect is anything but.
Connect is an album full of good intentions but too often flawed by a vast lack of creativity. The album begins with a horrid opener titled ‘Die To Save You’. The song starts off hopeful with some cinematic lingering guitar picking and a dirty daunting bassline, which all too quickly succumbs to the terrible lyrics. Seriously, do lyrics like “You’ve gotta die to save you” make proper sense to anyone? Following the albums opener is the first single off the album ‘There’s No Going Back’ which immediately hooks the listener with Shimon Moore’s warm vocals and crisp acoustic guitar riff. The lyrics here are still somewhat underwhelming but suit the genre and is quite a step up from ‘Die To Save You’. After hearing just two tracks off Connect anyone with a decent grasp on music can see that the Sick Puppies seem to be able to ace slower acoustic rockers, rather than big pretentious numbers. Songs like ‘Where Did The Time Go’, ‘Connect’ and ‘Poison’ are all perfect examples of where Sick Puppies function as a solid song writing unit. These songs show good use of bass, acoustic riffs, smooth vocals and a new found coat of depth to their music. However when something like a distant backing banjo works in ‘Connect’ another solid song like ‘Poison’ overstays it’s welcome for over a minute. So even these songs aren’t perfect at times, but they still appear more natural and sincere than much of the rest of the album.
When Sick Puppies do attempt to add a slab of meatiness to Connect it doesn’t really work, except for possibly the most interesting track on this release; ‘Gunfight’. The lyrics are better, more creative and delivered through an odd combination of marching/nursery rhyme influenced vocals. ‘Gunfight’ also sees some blistering bass work from bassist Emma Anzai and even a playful guitar solo. Sure the song might have a couple of gripes, but the overall experimentation was a welcomed example to thinking outside of the box. However, if ‘Gunfight’ was on the positive end of the spectrum for experimentation, the albums closer ‘Under A Very Black Sky’ is the complete polar opposite. ‘Under A Very Black Sky’ sounds like an acid-trip gone extremely wrong whilst at times trying to create a worse, yet altered genre version of Avenged Sevenfold’s ‘A Little Piece Of Heaven’, which was already quite a questionable song. It doesn’t close out the album the way a final track should and for some reason was largely reliant on Emma Anzai’s vocals who was largely dormant from the rest of the album.
For this group of Aussies Connect will appeal to long-time fans and a few radio ready singles might draw in a bigger audience, but overall this album is flawed. There is nothing that fast paced or fun on this album like you could find on previous releases, but Sick Puppies do nail some slower, acoustic driven numbers. Terrible lyrics too often contradict amazing bass lines, solid drumming and infectious acoustic rhythms. Maybe the Sick Puppies are caught in their own riptide and are unfortunately going down... see what I did there?
