Silversun Pickups: Carnavas Review
The Silversun Pickups are an indie band hailing from LA. They released their first album, Carnavas, in the summer of 06. I’ll start off by saying that this album is awesome. The band has a very mellow/grunge feel to them. To produce this vibe, they use a lot of distorted guitars, and synthetic electronic sounds. This produces a beat that retains a lot of aggressive grungy tones, at a more placid pace. The mellow really kicks in, when you hear the vocals. A soft subtle male voice, by lead singer Brian Aubert, is accompanied by a sweeter sounding female vocal, that of Nikki Monninger, which combined creates a very surreal atmosphere. The range of vocals is neither extravagant nor everlasting, but a sense of emotion can be heard from every line. It is definitely the kind of music, one would listen to high, but can definitely be appreciated sober.
The first song off the album, Melatonin, displays the fusion of vocals that really impressed me throughout the album. Aubert, although retaining a softer sound in this song, will often have hints of aggression in songs such as Lazy Eye. Lazy Eye is my favourite song off the album because it has a really catchy guitar riff, that really stands out from their more conservative songs. However from start to finish, every song on Carnavas has the Silversun Pickups trademark sound, which makes for an excellent listen. I would definitely recommend this album to any indie rock fan, or any fan of rock in general.
Here are my two favourite songs:
