[rating=2.50]
This album is a regression for The Secret Machines – and one that is to be expected with the amicable departure of guitarist Ben Curtis, who focuses now on School of Seven Bells. The first two albums Now Here is Nowhere and Ten Silver Drops were expansive and impressive and, coupled with their live sets, positioned the group at the precipice of stardom. In the wake of his brother’s departure, Brandon Curtis teamed back up with drummer Josh Garza and after a few years of trying some different things invited guitarist Phil Karnats to join. What followed was this self titled release, acting almost as a reboot of the band, instead of that third album magic they were once in-line to achieve.
Gone are the propulsive rockers. What emerges here is a sonic landscape of mood and feeling. The opener “Atomic Heels” is an ode to an oblivious/privileged female friend, yet the track never coalesces, feeling more like an outtake then a polished gem. The heartbreak tinged, “Now You’re Gone” is the best effort, a winning mix with the spooky build-up of sparse cymbals and effects, disengaged back tracked vocals singing lyrics of longing and lost with accuracy. “I Never Thought to Ask” takes this same route but never incorporates Garza’s impressive drumming, going more for acoustic, organ-tinged spaceyness. “Underneath the Concrete” motors in the vein of Ten Silver Drops but never reaches the heights of “Lightning Blue Eyes” or the like.
Never shying away from taking the long road, these tracks ease in and stick around a while… successfully on the paranoid “Walls Are Starting to Crack,” or tediously as on “Have I Run Out” or the 11+ minute closer “The Fire is Waiting,” which calls forth Pink Floyd’s The Wall, but remains bloated. The closer along with “Last Believer, Drop Dead” add an ominous religious apocalyptic undercurrent, which is unsettling, at times engaging, but in the end directionless like the album as a whole.
