Review Summary: Silverstein Goes Pop
Did you ever play that game with Google Translate where you would translate a passage from one language to another and back? Sometimes, if you did one too many steps, the re-translation would come back with the general themes and ideas, but the original work lost its previous tone and flow. That’s kind of how I feel about A Beautiful Place to Drown. It’s almost as if Silverstein's main influences came from the Pop Goes… series, with the oversimplified lyrics and not-quite-organic heavy parts. Certainly, it’s far from a bad album - I doubt Silverstein will ever reach a point where they aren’t putting out solid work - but it doesn’t have the same cohesion as much of their previous efforts.
I respect their risk-taking with genre experimentation, and in some cases, like in “Say Yes!” and “Where Are You,” it does pay off in an enjoyable way. However, even in these songs, it feels like Silverstein is covering someone else’s work. “Say Yes!” is fun and summery, albeit in the sense that I could easily see it as a Taylor Swift foray into pop-punk. Please note, that is not intended to be an insult: it takes a certain level of musical intuition to write something that catchy and earworm-y. It is genuinely an enjoyable song, but it feels several light-years beyond “The Afterglow,” which was by far the poppiest Silverstein song before this album. Unfortunately, the same plaudits cannot be offered for the ethereal “All On Me,” which completely forgoes any pretense of rock (let alone post-hardcore) and leans into the synths of emo-rap. But more than the instrumental changes in this song, the vox effects are a terrible offender. Shane Told has arguably the best voice in the scene, and some songs on this album distort him to a degree that is almost disrespectful to his abilities. He is at his best with minimal effects, and, luckily, he really shines through on songs like “September 14th,” “Madness,” and “Bad Habits.”
The core culprit, lyrical content (or lack thereof), prevents this album from reaching its potential. Most egregious is the throwaway “ah, *** it” between verses in “Stop.” A band that produced three high-quality concept albums (A Shipwreck in the Sand, This is How the Wind Shifts, I am Alive in Everything I Touch) shouldn’t have these issues at this stage of their career. Some may point to Paul-Marc Rousseau’s heavy hand in writing and producing the album as a justification, but that seems like a cop-out considering that he contributed so heavily to TIHTWS and IAAIEIT. He is also a remarkable guitarist that salvages songs like “Shape Shift” and “Coming Down” with innovative riffs. Shane Told should probably take back the lyrical responsibilities but this is a team effort, and the rest of the band could have pressed both lyricists to step up their games this go-around. Not everyone is going to create a Streetlight Manifesto-style lyric sheet, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a bit more depth and varied word choice.
Overall, I feel that the Victory-era Silverstein fans will have a hard time with this tonal shift, for good reason. It took me several listens to acclimate to the new tone, and I still struggle to get through the derivative “Infinite” and nebulous “All On Me.” However, pop influence isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it inspired the band to branch out to one fantastic and unexpected contributor - Princess Nokia adds a highly valuable dimension to “Madness.” I’d implore people that are blindly boycotting this album for its “poppiness” to reconsider. Keep in mind that Silverstein has never been an exclusively heavy band - their biggest album has three bona-fide ballads on it. Plus, if the current 20-Year tour is any indication, songs like “Bleeds No More” and “Vices” aren’t going anywhere. I, too, am hoping for a stylistic follow-up to “I am the Arsonist,” but there is still a lot of new material on this album to appreciate.
