| There must be something appealing about
repetitive radio-friendly pop rock, but what it is, I have yet to discover. There are some
fantastic things on this record, but in all, Garbo Swag's Sight For Sore Eyes,
echoes quite familiar. This album sounds a lot like every album my friends had on the CD
player while they got ready to go to frat parties in 1998. Dorm room rock.
But these guys do have a few things going for them. Namely, their singer, David Burgos. He
has quite a smashing set of pipes, and he's not a bad lyricist. His musings, like most
alternative pop rock lyrics lately, are about "mixed up girls," as in the song
"Sugar." But thankfully, Burgos' lyrics aren't trite. Well, maybe a
little. Like most Third Eye Blind copiers, Burgos likes to stretch out his vocal
chords so words like "everything," for instance, sound more like,
"Yu-avraythang!" If anything, this guy knows how to play the superstar.
The guitarist, Leo Post, has a habit of relying on tired riffs, but when he has to hold
back a bit, like on the ahem rap, "Summer Girl," his plucking reverb takes
the song to better places, like a 1992 road trip with the Tears for Fears Tears Fall
Down anthology. (Tears for Fears, thankfully, never tried to bust a rhyme. It's not
so much "rap" than it is, whatever it is the Barenaked Ladies do.)
For what it is, Sight For Sore Eyes isn't bad. I'll give it to Garbo Swag,
they've got just about every genre down. "Down Together" is a fast-paced
punk tune. "Siamese," a sad, 3-minute ballad. In "Keeping Up With the
Joneses," Burgos' voice gets distorted by one of those vocoder things (voice
distortion seems to be really popular these days, and I wonder if Garbo Swag used the
technique just to "keep up with the Joneses," so to speak?).
The best song on the album, "Smile," has the kind of chorus that plays inside
your head until you have to buy the album. Like the best pop music, when you're listening
to "Smile," you can't help turning to your friend and asking, "Have I heard
this before?" In a dream? Was it a childhood ditty we sang to tease nerds? The
song "Sugar" is no different. It's the slow song where the eyeliner-wearing
sensitive pop star emotes about whatever, in an overproduced video with sports stars and
camels gratuitous beach scenes. So I don't see why Garbo Swag wouldn't be popular if they
made it on MTV. They're every bit as good as Blink 182 and Green Day (after they started
shopping at the Gap) as far as I can tell. I doubt they'd be taken seriously by
sharp-toothed rock critics and snobby musicians, but then again, they put Christina
Aguilera on the cover of Rolling Stone.
More
ChicagoGigs.com Reviews
Chicago
Music Discussion Board
|
