"Meet me on the east side....."
Remember that song? Are you sure? Think really hard, now. That's right, it's Smoother! I did not know that Smoother had produced a minor hit in the summer of 2001 with "East Side" (though it's not surprising, as it's a great song) when I bought the album, but apparenetly, yes, it's true. Knowing that the band had done something worthy of getting noticed by a relatively large number of people made me examine the album with greater scrutiny then I would have if I hadn't known about their success. The question to be answered here is very simple - "is this a hit album?"
Smoother is a very interesting band, to say the least. They experiment with techno ("Good Day", "Electroconfusion") and punk ("Rock Her Like a Lion"), but mostly stay on the safe side of clean guitar-rock. Aside from the standout summer-song hit, the album boasts a number of strong tunes ("Happy If It Kills Me," "French Cigarettes,") that are presented in a very accessible way, but which also have a gleam of actual songwriting skill -a rarity these days. The strongest track on the album is probably the uptempo tale of broken love, "Snake", which is "sung" (if you want to call it that) in a straight, monotonous voice and driving by a thumping, pseudo-techno beat. It's the perfect merger of all the styles Smoother experiments with on the disc, and it shows that the band has an ear, and what's more, a conscious for always trying something different.
What is Smoother? Funny, intelligent, rocking, quirky - they all sum up the band pretty well. My original question as to whether or not this is a hit album? Maybe. It's good, there's no doubt about it, but the sound is a little bit overproduced. What do I mean by that? While it's obvious that Smoother is a very good band, the cold, clean production of their album almost seems to make them sound like robots. I hope they get it sorted out by the time they make their next stab at it. I'll be there waiting for it. You should be too.
By: J. Alexander Vance
