Chicago’s Smith Westerns open their third album with ‘3AM Spiritual’, their most Britpop indebted outing yet. It’s hazy and dreamy, while singer Cullen Omori offers up plenty of sincere romanticism; “please keep close to me / I don’t want to let you off my arm”. It’s an opener which sets the tone for Soft Will, and acts as a mission statement for a new, more mature Smith Westerns.
Beginning as delectably scuzzy revivalists of both Nuggets-era garage and ‘70s glam; on their second album Dye It Blonde Smith Westerns proved that with a studio and a budget their saccharine melodies and youthful energy could yield moderate success.
On album number three, the band’s ability to craft instantly addictive melodies remains, though they seem to travel at a much more sedentary pace. It doesn’t detract from ‘Idol’, whose wordless hooks wouldn’t sound out of place on the soundtrack to Sixteen Candles. The curiously instrumental ‘XXIII’ sounds suspiciously like early Pink Floyd, but the orchestra of tremolo guitars and soaring synths drift along nicely.
‘Fool Proof’ is pretty unremarkable until it gives way to a rousing outro filled with Max Kakacek’s compressed lead guitar lines. So too is ‘Best Friend’, albeit in their daggiest, sappiest love devotion yet. ‘Cheer Up’ features Omori’s voice stripped of its usual slathering of reverb, while album closer and lead single ‘Varsity’ highlights their growing penchant for synth leads and Omori’s newfound introspection, “thought I always had to win / or I wasn’t anything.” It’s a great bookend to the album, and despite its similarly pedestrian pace doesn’t lack any presence.
Smith Westerns were never going to remain a garage band forever. After constant touring following the success of their last album, they settled down, got themselves some apartments and took a break. They even refer to their music as their career. Their shift from fuzz-soaked teenage lotharios to indie-pop careerists could never be seamless, which is the detractor of this album.
While Soft Will lacks much of the addictive, devil-may-care recklessness of its predecessor, Smith Westerns have plenty of tricks up their sleeve; here they just use them more sparingly. Though it lacks some immediacy and some tracks stand out far more than others, it’s an album which suggests that Smith Westerns are in it for the long haul.
