ALBUM REVIEW; SECRET MACHINES (REAL VERSION)

What Happens when You Mash 40 Years of Music into One Band?

Secret Machines- Ten Silver Drops

4/5

A studio album can never do this band enough justice. They are too much of a pure live act. Still, this album is a solid release. Secret Machines’ new album, Ten Silver Drops, is their second proper full-length album. Following the epic Now Here Is Nowhere, Drops achieves atmospheric heights and jarring lows. The lyrics are more specific than the last release, and the message behind them is more honed. In other words, this band rocks.

Secret Machines take the last 40 years of music and make it their own. They incorporate everything from the power-drumming of Led Zeppelin to the ethereal soundscapes of Neu! and Harmonia to the craziness of Pink Floyd to the arena rock big sound of U2. All of these influences, and more, are featured on the album.

Drops features an array of sounds. “Alone, Jealous, and Stoned,” the lead single, features a lite-rock sound not heard since the early 1980s. At the other extreme, is the mesmerizing, pulsing rhythm of “I Hate Pretending.” This song features a drum solo that evokes the apocalypse. Furthering the image is a burgeoning wall of sound, one not heard since the days of Phil Spector, that crescendos and suddenly dissipates into what sounds like a dull helicopter flying overhead.

The songwriting is much more focused than ever before. The band wrote most of the songs on Drops during the tour supporting Nowhere, and they collectively decided to that the songs needed to be more specific on this release. Secret Machines wrote the last full-length to be more universal, and critics branded it as juvenile and out of touch. This time, the lyrics refer to specific feelings and events. According to the April 2006 Filter Magazine, the song “I Hate Pretending” is about a certain “night of debauchery” at the Magic Castle Hotel in Hollywood.

The Secret Machines are known to release their album digitally weeks before the disc hits retailers, and the band did it again. The digital release is available now at iTunes, Napster, and others. The disc drops on April 25.

However, the Secret Machines, regardless of anything they release, will never be able to capture the being that is their live show. A word of instruction: SEE THEM LIVE!