Part of the problem was the times, and Pat DiNizio’s mood. Lovelorn is one thing, but here he’s just inconsolable. “War For My Mind” and “Everything I Have Is Blue” aren’t exactly grunge, yet even at a fast tempo they plod. “Miles From Nowhere” was the single, and a good one, but “Afternoon Tea” doesn’t meet its potential by the same chord played on every beat despite the actual modulations in the song. At least “Point Of No Return” and “Sleep The Night Away” (a rewrite of “Cigarette” from the first album) finally provide some of their trademark bite.
“Love Is Gone” and “Long Way Back Again” keep up the energy, and then we come to the misfire of the album, if not the band’s career. The overt Revolver-style arrangement and production belie the misguided op-ed statement of “Gotti”. Their fans don’t listen to the Smithereens for politics, and if the band really felt this way about the situation, you’d think they’d have the balls to extend the title to encompass the message of “free John Gotti”. This isn’t Bob Dylan painting Joey Gallo as a modern-day Western outlaw. While it might’ve made a swell B-side, “Sick Of Seattle” is too clever for its own good, besides repeating the meter from “Sleep The Night Away”. “Can’t Go Home Anymore” drags the proceedings back to normal with a snotty harmonica to boot, which keeps wheezing on “Life Is So Beautiful”.
The Smithereens A Date With The Smithereens (1994)—2½
The Smithereens Blown To Smithereens: The Best Of The Smithereens (1995)—4½
The Smithereens Attack Of The Smithereens (1995)—3
The Smithereens From Jersey It Came! The Smithereens Anthology (2004)—3½
Well, if this was a typical date with The Smithereens, the young ladies would NOT have had a good time in the least! Pat DiNizio was morose before, but he moved into a much darker -- and a much less commercial – place with this album. The song titles are enough to clue you in, starting off with “War for My Mind”. Madness – wow! “Miles from Nowhere” was perhaps the best choice for the single, but the lyric about isolation contrasts with the music. “Long Way Back Again” leans heavily into the despair. "Can't Go Home Anymore", despite using the same jaunty rhythm as “Indigo Blues”, is a scary tune about an urban runaway. The two ballads, “Afternoon Tea” and “Life is So Beautiful” have innocuous titles. However, Pat sounds like he’d like his tea laced with cyanide in the former, while he sounds like he can’t get behind the statement of the latter after the crash and burn of a romance. Jim Babjak doesn’t sound like he’s in a better state either, with his own relationship trouble in one song and hopelessness about the state of the world in the other.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the group does provide some relief from all of this with the humor in “Sick of Seattle” and “Gotti”. This is where I really disagree with your interpretations, particularly of the latter. “Sick of Seattle” is obviously using the grunge sound to parody the grunge fad. I can’t believe that you take the lyrics of “Gotti” seriously. They are so over the top and silly that I can’t Pat really admired the guy.
Those two songs are the exceptions. The rest of the album has a tougher, louder rock sound without any of the poppier elements of their earlier work. Combined with the real downer lyrics, it’s no wonder that the album was a tough sell.
"Attack of The Smithereens" is really only for hardcore fans. Most of their early stuff on the first half of the album, not unexpectedly, sounds like a 80's version of 60's garage rock (comparing the demo of "Time and Time Again" with the final version makes the point). The covers the band do are fun, so the "Covers" collection, which puts together those the band did outside of the tribute albums, is more recommended. The only real complaint that I have about either set that I NEVER wanted to hear Graham Parker sing my favorite Smithereens song!
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