Smith Westerns
Soft Will
???
Indie Rock
Just by hearing the first two singles off Smith Westerns’ latest record, you would think the album was a masterpiece. Both “3am Spiritual” and “Varsity” are superb, well-crafted pop rock songs with varied influences and lyrical depth. Unfortunately, Soft Will as a whole remains largely forgettable, as the real meat of each song fades behind glossy production and a sea of melodic “ooohs.” And while there are definitely highlights (the two aforementioned singles, “Idol,” “White Oath”), the Beatle-esque charm of these tracks stops feeling so comforting after being used for the hundredth time.
Similarly, the only tracks that handle the album’s weighty themes with any depth are the highlights. The complex admissions of guilt in “3am Spiritual” and the sad, summer lament of “Varsity” almost pull the album down by making the other tracks seem trivial in comparison. The album’s best moments are destined for lonely summer nights, when blasting a song out of a car’s stereo seems like a life changing experience. And while the other songs on Soft Will don’t come nearly close to hitting that windows down transcendence, they hold the pace pretty well in between.
The only song on Soft Will that I think I can say I truly hate is “XXIII,” a plodding instrumental that I find myself skipping every single time. Its song structure mirrors that of almost every other track on the short 10 song album, only without any sort of melody to make it interesting. And therein lies the problem for Soft Will. When the melodies strike (as they do on the highlights), they strike well. But otherwise, they leave Soft Will as an ultimately forgettable record with a few dynamite songs.
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