I want you to pretend that you’re in a record shop, jogging laps around the new release section – perhaps even playing a mental game: counting the Joy Division compilations that were released in the past six months (fifteen or more = win). You find an album tucked away in the back with a Mandrill as its cover art (one of nature’s ugliest animals) by a band that calls themselves suckers. You look at the track listing – why you have no idea – and see a song titled, “2 Eyes 2 C”. Question: do you buy it? Do you even bother breaking it out to take it to a listening station? Most people, myself included, would probably just disregard it as some worthless house/dance-rave release and put it back on the shelf. Big mistake. If ever there was a case for not judging a book by its cover – unless the book is Mein Kampf, then by all means – Wild Smile is it. While suckers may not know what the fuck they’re doing in terms of EP and album art (the cover for their self-titled EP looked like a post-LSD Party City trip gone wrong), and even the naming of their band, they know how to make music. Great music. However, it’s a shame, a huge shame, that a lot of people will miss out on suckers debut album, Wild Smile, due to some juvenile publishing decisions.
Wild Smile has no pretense of itself; it knows exactly what it is. It’s a fantastically constructed pop record that borrows from several current trends in music while at the same time reminding us of a few we may have forgotten, such as the arena-rock ‘lighter-waving’ ballad (Surfer Blood don’t have SHIT on these guys). The record sacrifices a lot of modern Indie’s unneeded complexity, instead opting for something more important: GOOD SONGS.
The opener,“Save Your Love For Me”, has the most addictive vocal refrain I’ve heard all year. “Save your body/Save your mind” repeats on and on, almost becoming an instrument on its own, as vocalist Quinn Walker modestly croons this one out before erupting – erupting the way a true rock ballad should. And when he does, the aforementioned refrain comes back into the mix in a big way. Fucking genius. Walker’s vocal variety is impressive: capable of both softness and aggression. On “Before Your Birthday Ends”, Walker adopts a falsetto complimented lovingly by sharp guitar licks throughout the chorus and a great crescendo harmony as the drums bang away. There’s even a cool little guitar solo after the bridge that seemingly knocks Walker off his falsetto cloud, the rest of the vocals delivered in his set/normal register.
(The song isn't eight minutes long; Movie Maker just fucked up the audio length.)
Every song on Wild Smile has an addictive quality to it in one way or another. Honestly, while the hooks may not always wow you with their complexity, or lack there of, they’re immediately gratifying; and if the vocal rhythms don’t catch you, the many layers of instrumentation will. “Roman Candles” whistles (literally) a nice little rhythm along the road. It’s not the most ingeniously crafted song you’ll ever hear, but once the catchy whistling is juxtaposed by the vocal harmonies, marching drums, and a few piano notes, that won’t matter. Similarly, “It Gets Your Body Movin’” makes it strong case without needing a single cross-examination -- using only five words. And those five words never get tiresome.
“Martha” is a joyfully breezy lil’ pop song that takes us back to early Talking Heads, a comparison often placed on suckers. The song has some lovely Spanish horns with vocals that just scream, “HEY! WE LISTEN TO WORLD MUSIC!” Not literally, of course. It’s simple, and the harmonizing in the final minute is predictable as all hell, but so what? Less is more. But that isn’t to say that these songs lack complexity, they don’t. However, the complexity is subtle: hidden away in the instrumentation, revealing itself after several listens.
I feel that since every song on this record comes and goes without cynicism, consistently leaving a smile on your face and a good feeling (a VERY GOOD feeling), it’s easy to label the songs as cheap or accessible: the latter being a word that the Indie crowds hate more than Grizzly Bear at the moment. Accessible and immediate do not mean EASE, and they certainly do not mean BAD. Just because an album is catchy – and free from the handcuffs of trying to be avant-garde – doesn’t mean it’s lacking. And since when the fuck is making an accessible album an easy undertaking? People talk shit about contemporary radio-pop constantly – some of it warranted, some of it not; but for all these fuckers talk, they don’t realize that constructing music – music that retains an artistic integrity – that can reach a broader audience, as opposed to a niche one, isn’t easy. Not at all. But for all the criticized “simplicity” of Wild Smile, are people forgetting that it takes a great level of talent to construct songs that can instantly hit you, but at the same time, reward you later on?
Wild Smile is my favorite album of the year as of June (gotta put that there so you guys don’t start questioning whether or not I know what subjective means again). From the album’s opener, “Save Your Love For Me”, all the way to its closer, “Loose Change”, there wasn’t a single crack in the sidewalk suckers layed for me to walk through. Even the song recycled from their 2009 self-titled EP, “It Gets Your Body Movin’”, fits in wonderfully with the rest of the album – and it isn’t even the best song! Not by far! If ever there was an album that truly supported the cliché of every song potentially being a single, Wild Smile would be it.
My only gripe – and believe me, it’s a small one – is the juvenile packaging around all of this great music. The band is called SUCKERS, all lowercase, and the album has a fucking MANDRILL’S FACE for a cover. When I first listened to the 2009 EP last week, in preparation for reviewing Wild Smile, I took a look at the track listing and saw “It Gets Your Body Movin’” and immediately thought, “I’m going to be listening to some 90’s-style dance music, or something like that; ugh, I’ve got a St. Etienne album on my Ipod and that’s enough.” (As a lil’ aside: is awesome.) So, imagine my surprise when “It Gets Your Body Movin’” turned out to be a rock ballad, almost similar to “We Are The Champions” – the way it hammers a single idea into your damn head through repetitively sung words until you believe whatever was being said. Frenchkiss put out Wild Smile, a label also home to Passion Pit and The Antlers; and considering how poorly they handled (and continue to handle) the latter (releasing Hospice before the fucking thing was even mastered properly), it’s not a huge birthday surprise (as the art of their self-titled EP suggests; imagine seeing THAT in your house holding a cake), that the band’s image is poorly handled. Their name is terrible, and they can’t seem to grasp the importance of a good album cover. As Pitchfork said when reviewing their EP last year, who exactly are the suckers? Is it us? Them? Who knows. It’s not really important. What is, however, is that Wild Smile is not only a terrific debut, but an album that will certainly surprise most of us who make quick assumptions in that lil’ record shop. Sometimes things that are misleading can turn into huge surprises, albeit rarely, but it does happen. Wild Smile is a perfect example of that.
Bruce's Score: 9.0/10
What to download: I can understand how some people might not like this album. However, if you like the samples provided (which I uploaded myself), you will like the entire record. It's really good.
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