This is Smile Empty Soul’s debut album, and their only one to date. Smile Empty Soul is a rock band that focuses on young teenage problems such as drugs, parents, and relationships. They released a few videos for this album, probably the best known being the video for “Nowhere Kids”. While their music never quite made it to “main-stream” status, they are still a relatively well known band. Smile Empty Soul is comprised of:
Sean Danielsen-Vocals, guitar
Ryan Martin-Bass
Derek Gledhill-Drums
The band focuses on emotional lyrics, with either soft acoustics, or angry lyrics, with hard, fast paced instrumentals. While the band is mainly known and admired by teenagers, it can still be enjoyed by all ages for different reasons. Older audiences may enjoy the emotion of the band, without necessarily having to agree with the lyrical context. While nothing they do is really groundbreaking in their genre, they are still one of the best at what they do. It is easy to fall in love with this album, especially if you are going through your teen years. Smile Empty Soul sings about parental abuse in a more dark, and “real” manner than some other bands such as “Simple Plan”. Unlike Simple Plan, Smile Empty Soul does not keep their material PG, of PG-13. They will go into songs of drug abuse and other issues faced by the new generation of young adults.
Smile Empty Soul kicks off their musical career with their self titled album “Smile Empty Soul”. The CD features 14 tracks of a variety of styles. The can make an acoustic song such as “This is War”, and then on the very next track bust out with a hard hitting song “Therapy”. These artists were still going through some of these problems that were dealt with in the album, and it is easy to see that they did not need to look far for inspiration.
1.Bottom of a Bottle-This song is about searching for life’s answers through drugs. This isn’t the best song on the album, but it still sets a nice tone to what the rest of the CD will be like.
(3/5)
2.Silhouettes-In this song, Danielsen sings about the fear of him growing up like his parents. This is a softer song, and it seems gentler than some of the others, and it has a nice intro. This song displays a lot of the emotion that make them a good band.
(4.5/5)
3.Nowhere Kids-This is probably their most recognized song. It’s about being raised by a neglectant and abusive family. This song is a bit angrier, and they show the pressure of having to be perfect children, when they were never raised properly in the first place. There is a nice beat to this song and the guitars also make it a heavier song than most.
(4/5)
4.This is War-This is probably the only time on the album that they get political. This song is of course about war, and how everyday people can be turned into a soldier when he feels his country “needs” him. This is one of their acoustics songs, and the slow pace really help in sending the message that they wanted to create.
(4/5)
5.Therapy-In this song Danielson shows us how he feels with all the pressure and problems he faces everyday, and how it is making him insane in a sense. There are some decent instrumentals on the song.
(3.5)
6. For You-This is another great acoustic song. Although the lyrics seem emotional enough, it didn’t seem like it was song with as much emotions as the other songs. He sings about relation problems, and having love for someone who doesn’t love you back.
(4/5)
7. Your Way-This is more a song about rebelling against the rules of his parents. He sings about how disappointing he may have been for them, but they were never any better by pushing their ideas and beliefs on him. He also sings about finding your own way to live, and not just living by someone else’s standards. Great song.
(4.5/5)
8. The Other Side-This is another emotional song about yearning for a better life, but then realizing it may not always be as good as it looks on the “other side”. The instrumentals are a bit slower and softer, but not too soft. One of my favorites on the CD.
(5/5)
9. Every Sunday- Song about not having to be religious to be a good person and the person who attends church regularly is not necessarily the best people. It was an ok song, but I don’t feel that it was done as well as some of the others.
(2.5/5)
10. With this Knife-Probably the most emotional, and depressing song on the CD. It’s about trying to overpower anguish with pain. It has very soft instrumentals, setting a dark and depressing mood for the song. Its still one of my favorites though.
(5/5)
11. Radio In a Hole- Never really understood what it was about. I didn’t quite understand saying someone was “My radio in a hole covered up.” The instrumentals were not that great either, and sometimes just annoying. Pretty weak song in my opinion.
(1.5/5)
12. All my Problems-Song is about not conforming to the normal way of living, and making your life what you want it to be. A little more vulgar than the other songs, but compared to other artists it’s really nothing to be worried about.
(4.5/5)
13. I Want My Life- Yet another great acoustic song. It is once again about finding out who he is, and where he belongs. It of course has very soft instrumentals. This is probably their best made acoustic song.
(5/5)
14. Eraser- This song is about a rocky relationship that doesn’t seem to be working out too well. The relationship changes from them being in love, to being at each others throats in an instant. Very well done song in my opinion.
(4.5/5)
Although this rock band does not have very complex instrumentals, or even the best lyrics/ vocals, it still seems to work well for what they want to achieve. This band may seem a little too “emo” for you, but they aren’t all about the emo scene. They don’t cry about everything, and they don’t wear makeup or wear girl pants. So if you want a rock band that is emotional, but not necessarily “emo”, then Smile Empty Soul is for you.
Rating-4/5
Recommended Downloads:
With This Knife
Silhouettes
For You
The Other Side
I Want My Life
