2011s intense "Dye It Fair-haired" gave Smith Western its previous big-time moment. If not for a group of crafty rappers from L.A. named Odd Cutting edge, that year's SXSW might as well assertion been dubbed "Smith Westerns Continue Austin." The name-making time LP found the Chicago trio of brothers Cullen and Cameron Omori, and friend Max Kakacek, graduating from the scuzzy, high-school garage-rock of their 2009 eponymous introduction to full-on glam-rock guitar-hero mode, clearly brilliant evacuate influences bearing in mind T.Rex, Bowie and Mott the Hoople via blown-out power-pop gems.
In the two existence to the same extent, such palpable sound may assertion subsided. But the band's swindle for contagious guitar and synth riffs has definitely not. Their original EP, "Horizontal Character", may not curt the script, but it does sophistication their mission: There's less of the debut's punkish place -- a organization that sometimes verged on snotty -- and no circulate is as momentarily catchy as "Dye It Fair-haired"'s "Weekend." What's left though is a improved load on kind uniformity, chirpy guitar licks and hummable hooks.
Cullen correspondingly sounds in addition persuaded in his oral talent: He's become a true singer moderately than the dude in the band who figured he'd confer singing a set sights on. The maturation is reflected in his lyrics. "You don't come into view bearing in mind you hand-me-down to be/ You don't come into view bearing in mind you did on TV," he admits on "3AM Spiritual," one of numerous references to self-discovery. The trio's eminent off-the-stage feature is not varnished exhausted, either: "Apiece day's a blessing/ Apiece day's a hangover," Omori sings on the psychedelic "Brave woman." Naysayers will find the band's even-tempered derivative. They wouldn't be fake. But Smith Westerns never hid their influences or claimed to be what on earth they're not: three dudes hypnotized by big hooks and mountains of circulate.
