8.3
Growth in musical artist is always so intriguing. Weather it be artistic growth, maturity, or experience. Smith Westerns falls under the category of maturity. Only in high school when these garage rockers put out their self-titled debut. Now two years later, Smith Westerns have switched directions from their heavily distorted garage rock feel on their debut and they come across with hints of glam rock, lo-fi vocals, and huge walls of George Harrison-inspired guitar lines.
Coming off influences like T. Rex, '60s garage rock compilations, and David Bowie, you can see all three of those in Dye It Blonde. T. Rex; through the high-strung guitar lines and glam rock aspect. '60s garage rock; through the messy walls of sound and vocals sounding like they were recorded through a laptop. You get the idea, Smith Westerns is an interesting group. Everything goes fantastic for the Smith Westerns, except their immediate downfall of repetition and vocals.
The vocals go down as some of the worse. Hiding behind the production make it inclined that lead singer Cullen Omori doesn't want to be heard, he sounds whiny and immature. His vocals just don't fit in with the glorious guitar anthems, walls of guitar sounds and dissonant acoustic strums. Thankfully, the rest of Smith Westerns pick up for the slack on Omori. Excellent, heavily distorted guitar work that is reminiscence of The Beatles' George Harrison.
Highlights of Dye It Blonde are the opener "Weekend" and the ballad/anthem "All Die Young". "Weekend" starts out with a playful guitar line that foreshadows the rest of the album. "All Die Young" starts out as a prom-like glam rock dance tune and then descends into a frantic anthem of Omori's yells of "All die young!". The great hooks that Smith Westerns create are never ending throughout Dye It Blonde as well. The jangly guitar line on "Still New" keep me coming back for more and more.
Dye It Blonde unfortunately wears old towards the latter part of album starting with "Fallen In Love". There's a sense of repetitive natures on the second half of the album with the glorious guitar solos and messy vocals all starting to sound the same. The album picks back up with the fast paced fun-loving "Dance Away" and the outro of the most guitar-heavy track "Dye the World".
Dye It Blonde is a decently done album that really flies by you with the hooks of guitars singing in your ears. From the jangly "Still New" to the guitar mow-down "Dye the World", Smith Westerns pull through. The growth from their debut is very apparent and will easily be noticed by anyone who has taken a listen to their debut and they will not be disappointed.
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