Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Silversun pickups, New Machine Recordings 2022.
Silversun Pickups hail from Los Angeles and this album is the first I’ve heard of them but considering the quality therein, it won’t be the last.
The four-piece outfit is comprised of Brian Aubert (guitar), Nikki Monniger (bass), Christopher Guaniao (drums), and Joe Lester (keyboards).
They play a wonderful bass heavy indie/alternative rock that is complex but also easily approachable.
The album is beautifully produced and made for the mature thinking listener.
It’s a musical and lyrical cliché free zone which is so liberating.
It’s like an oasis in a sea of formulaic mediocrity.
Although they are new to me, they have a string of releases dating back to 2005 available on Bandcamp so they’ve been around for some time.
And considering the list of up-coming shows they obviously have a strong fan base.
As with a lot of artists I’ve come across lately they have had a number of their songs picked up for inclusion in video game soundtracks.
Lazy eye, from their debut EP featured in Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour and two other songs Melatonin and Well thought Out Twinkies are also available as downloads for the Rock Band series.
In addition to these successes, they have opened for the Foo Fighters on their UK and Ireland tours and The Kaiser Chiefs and Placebo on their European tours.
I’d go as far as to say that they are one of the best bands I’ve heard in a long time.
Most of their albums have been critically acclaimed and fared well in the charts – their 2012 release Neck Of The Woods debuted in the Billboard Top 100 moving to the number one spot on its second day of release.
Physical thrills is the bands sixth album and I believe that it deserves the attention of the movers and shakers of the music press.
It’s packed with fantastic tracks that offer a selection of potential singles but work beautifully together.
It’s an album that I keep wanting to go back to.
I had a listen to their chart topping 2012 album for comparison and I believe that Physical thrills is easily as good as Neck Of The Woods and should do equally as well in the charts.
