Is it possible in an alternative music world to sound original
\nwhile building on the efforts of bands who came before you?<\/p>\n
Good question – and it’s not one I’m quite prepared to answer
\ndefinitively. But in the case of Smash Palace, their disc
\nFast, Long, Loud<\/i> combines pop sensibilities with just a bit
\nof country\/alternative twang a la the BoDeans. The end result is a
\ndecent, if not a bit wandering, effort.<\/p>\n
The band – vocalist\/multi-instrumentalist Stephen Butler and
\nvocalist\/drummer Brian Butler – are able to take their two-man
\noperation and convincingly sound like a full band throughout the
\nbulk of this disc. (To be fair, on two tracks, there is a full
\nband.) Musically, the group follows some of the same roads that
\nother bands like The Jayhawks and the BoDeans have carved, but
\nrarely do they sound like they’re trying to mimic those bands’
\nsound as well. No, Smash Palace is its own animal – and that’s one
\npoint in their favor.<\/p>\n
I’ll admit that it takes some time to really get into this
\nalbum; it would be far too easy to listen to the opening tracks
\n“Try” and “Turn Another Screw” and write them off as a wanna-be
\nband. Fact is, the beauty of Smash Palace’s work doesn’t show
\nitself until well into the album. Tracks like “Everything You
\nBring,” “It’s All Because,” “Death Of Me” and “Let Me Go” all make
\na strong case for this band. Since the brothers Butler are their
\nown self-contained band, you don’t need to hear any one instrument
\nor voice constantly in the forefront. If anything, the way that
\neverything is able to blend together is another facet that makes
\nthis disc a special listen.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, such a level of excellence isn’t constant on
\nFast, Long, Loud<\/i>. The sound tends to get a little old as the
\nalbum winds down, and their dip into a more country-pop vein as on
\nthe album’s closer “Riverdale” seems to end the disc on a down note
\n– not the way I would have chosen to finish things off. Still, the
\nmistakes on this disc are few, which is a good sign of promise for
\nSmash Palace.<\/p>\n
The one drawback I would admit that Smash Palace has is that
\nthey are a band that takes some getting used to. I think I had
\ngiven this disc five listens before I was ready to give it a listen
\nfor review. I question whether some listeners will have that kind
\nof time and patience to let this group grow on them.<\/p>\n
Still,
\nFast, Long, Loud<\/i> is a good effort from Smash Palace, and
\nserves as a sign that we will probably be hearing a lot more from
\nthis band in due time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6159],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36324","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-smash-palace","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36324"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36324"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}