Silversun Pickups - Carnavas

When radio stations tired of earbashing their listeners with Muse's 'Knights of Cydonia', their next targets for attempted enjoyment ruining through over exposure were MIA's 'Paper Planes' and Silversun Pickup's 'Lazy Eye' from the album Carnavas. The latter was the first single from the first full-length offering from Silversun Pickups which produced an album full of easy listening rock tunes. Indeed two of the album's four singles 'Lazy Eye'' and 'Well Thought Out Twinkles' placed in the top 10 of the billboard modern rock chart and the album has since sold upwards of 350,000 copies.

The band's combination of passive rock ballads with heavy grungy peaks saw the album transcend any number of genre pigeon holes. Although its appeal is broad, it is hard not to compare the sound to that of other favourite bands of your childhood because you swear you've heard something like it before. Big guitar hooks draw the ear unapologetically, but despite a modern rock band commonality, a certain sincerity and credibility keeps the album from getting stale and the songs have a longevity not always synonymous with such easy listening.

The more bubbly material such as the energetic aforementioned singles and the track 'Dream at Tempo 119' instantly attract but the album is also littered with more melancholy tracks. In fact the albums penultimate song might have sat nicely on a certain depressed Smashing Pumpkins album.

The bands live performances off the back of the album didn't disappoint with the band producing mosh friendly versions of the album's tracks on stages around the world.