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"Astray" Samiam |
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The beginning comes off like another of those post-modern folk ballads exposing the maturation of the songwriter while the not so eternal youthfulness and energy of the past sank somewhere an album and a half ago… not so with this new one from Samiam however! "Sunshine,"
which peaks ever so carefully during the first minute of play gets
quickly Equally as impressive goes the second tune, "Wisconsin," burning amperage long into the night as they sing about, "Lightly drifting… calmly… dreaming…" things like that but not exactly the easy listening moments destined to whisk you off to dreamland. I remember Samiam as being one of the bigger names to hit the alternative radio charts in recent years but did they always pack this much of a wallop? And they look clean cut and proper in the studio photos. In following the surprising success of '98s "You Are Freaking Me Out," this new piece of the rock, jagged-edged and sharp at the corners, beats the last one hands down-a testament not to the inferiority of the last, but the magnitude and direction with which they've come out here. "Paraffin's" another one that just jumps out at ya, fists clenched, screaming-definitely retaining the punky edge they began with while conversely, the pop-harmony of "Calloused," begs the attention of hit-single status… if only they were known for leaning in that sort of direction. After a decade of triumph and turmoil, Samiam, sometimes the enigma but always the model of consistency, drifts along in their own natural surroundings with another offbeat and colorful left of center rock and roll concoction. Released by Hopeless Records Review by Vinnie Apicella [va85@columbia.edu] P.O. Box 20252
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