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Silversun Pickups: Neck of the Woods

Dangerbird

Let’s be honest: No matter how hard they try to avoid it, the Silversun Pickups will forever garner comparisons to the Smashing Pumpkins, not only thanks to their penchant for dramatic guitars and impenetrable lyrics (not to mention the blonde girl bassist), but also thanks to singer Brian Aubert’s emotive whine, a near-soundalike for Billy Corgan’s still-resonant voice. So, if that comparison holds, then Neck of the Woods is their Adore, a slightly more electrocized rocker that likely won’t make as big an impact as their breakthrough (there isn’t anything here as immediate as “Lazy Eye,” the band’s first hit) but it’s a grower, not a instant showstopper. “Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)” rides a wall of sound into dynamic drop-outs, and “Simmer” does what its title implies, for a bit at least, before exploding into a guitar-god coda. Somewhere in Chicago, James Iha is jealous.