Review Summary: Unnecessary, unwanted, but still good for what it is.
I've been a Silverstein fan since 2005, following the release of their sophomore album
Discovering the Waterfront. And I can remember as early as DTW's album cycle, people were asking Silverstein – whether on Myspace, the message board on their own website, or even in interviews – if they would be so kind as to re-record their debut album
When Broken Is Easily Fixed. The main reason for this request from fans was because Shane Told's harsh vocals were nothing short of grating on WBIEF, and DTW showed a massive improvement in this department. For years and years this continued; through all social media platforms that have come and gone, I have seen comments, statuses and tweets to Silverstein requesting for a polished version of their rough-around-the-edges debut. In 2019, instead of listening to the begging and pleading from their loyal and longtime fanbase, they released
Redux: The First Ten Years.
Redux is a collection of twelve re-recorded songs from their first four albums. The tracks chosen were for the most part their most popular ones from those albums, which gives me the impression that they were trying to please their entire fanbase, casual and new included, and not just the oldheads. The result is that older fans (and probably some newer ones as well) are still upset that there is no complete re-recording of WBIEF, and casual fans are either happy or indifferent that there are new versions of the two Silverstein songs that they listen to on their playlist. Meanwhile, after the novelty of the
Redux album wears off after a few listens, Silverstein fans will just go back to listening to whichever proper LPs from the band that they enjoy, since they contain groups of songs that were written in the same period of time, and hold some actual cohesion with one another.
As for the quality of the songs on
Redux, I can't deny that they all sound great. Production on Silverstein albums has done nothing but improve over the years, and for what it's worth, it's interesting to hear these older songs with a more polished sound. Shane has also transformed into a phenomenal vocalist over the past decade, and his performances do justice to some tracks that I didn't even know needed it. Although the guitar and drum tabs remain mostly unchanged, there is a perceivable improvement in confidence and execution in these re-recordings, as the band has performed these tracks hundreds of times by now.
Redux is almost certainly the nail in the coffin for that WBIEF remake, but I can't entirely knock it due to how good it sounds. Still, it's a novelty album, and I don't see much reason to listen to it over any other Silverstein album that one might enjoy. I want to make note that since the release of
Redux, and as of the time of my writing this review, Silverstein has released one other Redux album (
Redux II) which includes newer songs, but has much more phoned-in-sounding performances from the band. So if anything,
Redux: The First Ten Years has the spark of originality and passion that the other albums of its series that are likely to come do not.
