Style: pop, rock
Label: Capitol
Year: 1989
Home: n/a
Members: Pat DiNizio ~ vocals/guitars/string
Jim Babjak ~ guitars
Dennis Diken ~ drums
Mike Mesaros ~ bass
Additional: Michael Hamilton ~ guitars
Belinda Carlisle, the Honeys, Maria Vidal ~ b. vocals
Kenny Margolis ~ keyboards/accordion/harpsichord
Ed Stasium ~ b. vocals/percussion
Gerri Sutyak ~ cello
I've heard the Smithereens before & wasn't thrilled either initially or on repeated listens. A friend raved about them, but I didn't hear what he heard. That was almost 20 yrs ago, so I thought I'd give them another listen with their third release. This was purely randomly chosen. I'm still not hearing it. The problem I've always had with them is their lyrics are very much pop oriented, yet the guitars are more like this noisy over-driven punk thing. I figure that they are trying to create pop with a different musical context, reaching out to both fan groups, but to me it sounds like something is missing. The music is bland & does nothing but drone on, making every song sound alike. Any snap to the lyrics are lost as they have nothing to support them or add to them or accentuate to them. Are they trying to be a garage band? Nirvana sounded like a garage band, but did something musically more interesting. "Baby Be Good" has such non-gritty soft lyrics that I'm confused even more by what audience the band is reaching for. Then I hear a song like "Blue Period" that has acoustic guitars & strings. Its interesting, but so out of context I don't know where this song came from. It's also kinda bland. Nick Cave did this better with "Where The Wild Roses Grow." Actually, lots of bands did everything here better. If these lyrics were by XTC or some other quirky band of the era I think I'd appreciate them more. This is for some audience out there, but not me.
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