#289 Smith Westerns - Dye it Blonde

First album from Pitchfork in ages, and first 2011 album reviewed.

Off to a good start, 2011. This is a poppy, joyous, stompy run, evoking a touch of 60's, plenty of Supergrass, some of Arcade Fire's anthemic starreaching, and even a roundabout touch of the maximalist crowdrousing of late The Hold Steady. On paper, it shares a lot with that watery, domestic indie rock I'm always complaining about. Lush production, wimpy vocals, repeated chiming guitar backbones. The key is that the songs actually bother to lift and surge, actually rise to become large and try. And most importantly, the songs exist only as a playground for this one guitar sound, this everpresent, savage, gorgeous distored guitar line that romps all over every spare moment, giving it guidance and power. Think the finest guitar lines that Ratatat and the Pumpkins ever had, that guitar line polished to perfection, with every ragged edge perfectly considered and placed in place, like a serrated samurai sword, so well-executed you can see its overengineered lack of texture as a strength. That guitar line, and that general willingness to rock, is what elevates this.

I'm a sucker for the big gorgeous riff, and if you want to plow it through big gorgeous structures, I'm hooked. This album makes me regress, makes me turn into my 90's music self, where I get swept up in big pop rock moments, where a guitar line takes my heart out. Plus, it's well paced,with a good opener, a great track 3 follow-up, and a great anthemic closer.

I don't know that its all that good. I don't know that its all that inventive or worthy or what, but it works. I feel a little sheepish 5-ing this up when I've so recently 4.5-hedged on so many long-loved classics of the 60's, but the fact is, something that sounds new and immediate stands a better chance of getting access to that irrational section of my mind that holds the keys to the 5's. I don't think any album deserves a 5, its only the albums that get into the idiot emo center that trick me into giving one that get one anyway 5/5