Review Summary: canadian weekend, pt 1: diminishing returns
Two years ago, I speculated that the average
A Beautiful Place to Drown was merely an unnecessary documentation of Silverstein draining all their pop sensibilities into a project before returning to bigger and better things. Even though I am an incredibly brilliant and humble visionary, I was only somewhat correct. While the brand new
Misery Made Me is notably
better than its slightly older brother, the improvement is not due to the new record being
heavier and less
pop-centric; rather, it’s because the songwriting is marginally better. Key word: marginally.
As the second helping of the roaring 20s progress, it’s becoming painfully clear that Silverstein just… aren’t that great anymore. Sure, the Canadians are still capable of delivering an absolute banger in the form of ‘Die Alone’, but the majority of
Misery Made Me sees the band masking bland songs with larger-than-life production choices and other unconvincing trickery. Following the deeply inspiring lyrics “
I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care” with a screm’d “
YEAH!” doesn’t exactly mask ‘Our Song’s glaring shortcomings; similarly, ‘The Altar/Mary’ shoots itself in the foot with a squirt gun by contrasting excellently intense verses with a highly questionable effect-laden chorus. The atmosphere the band are clearly shooting for simply isn’t there, as no element is given ample time and space to develop into something endearing. Elsewhere, ‘It’s Over’ relies too heavily on an uninspired riff while ‘Don’t Wait Up’ underuses its excellent riff, perfectly exemplifying the album’s incompetence: the right ingredients might be there, but Silverstein seem to have lost the recipe.
In spite of this,
Misery Made Me is a perfectly
listenable album. Save for the aforementioned ‘Die Alone’, its best moments are mostly that: scattered moments. ‘Ultraviolet’s chorus is a highly enjoyable slice of pop rock; ‘Cold Blood’ provides a good canvas for Shane Told’s vocals if little else; ‘Misery’ builds up to a somewhat unexpected climax in spite of its dreadfully uninspired lyrics. While
Misery Made Me might be a better album than
A Beautiful Place to Drown, it also presents a more explicitly depressing listen: it functions as confirmation that the once admirably reliable Silverstein aren’t capable of writing a consistently good record anymore. Heaviness can’t obscure blandness: moreover, heaviness can’t excuse yet another forced chorus melody when it is unaccompanied by the band’s trademark riffage. Shocker: misery isn’t a whole lot of fun.
