Semisonic
All About Chemistry

THE REVIEW

What direction would a singer and guitarist have taken in the nineties, if grunge music had not existed? What would have been the sonic direction, the metric, the level to aspire to, the reference to please, the model to derive from?

To put it simply, Mr. Dan Wilson, essentially Semisonic, by 2001 had lost his rock n' roll dreams. This is demonstrated by "All About Chemistry," an album of light guitar pop, all in all quite unpretentious, equipped with a few singles to consistently send to the charts, but that in no way resembles that "pop song that even someone who listens to grunge might enjoy" that is "Closing Time," and that doesn't have the rhythm of "Across The Great Divide," doesn't have the guitars of "Singing In My Sleep," doesn't have the full-bodied rhythm and riffs of "Over My Head"...

Here there is danceable, catchy, and slick pop, stuff for maroon yuppies or for the (pen)ultimate generation of Brit poppers like Franz Ferdinand. Then there's drinkable college rock like a flat soda, and finally a series of ballads just as good in writing as poorly managed in execution, the fault of a too well-mannered band with an excessively light sound. Added to these superficial arrangements is Wilson's interpretation, truly too much like a good boy. For these reasons, one almost doesn't notice the goodness of "Act Naturally," "Surprise," and "One True Love," written and sung with none other than her majesty Carole King. And it is precisely this last track, along with "I Wish," where the right angst comes in the chorus thanks to the electric guitars and a non-credited female backing vocal, that allows "All About Chemistry" to also benefit from a handful of highlights, poor album.

When that minimum amount of rock is missing, it's like missing flour: what dough can you create, what concoction can you ever bring out, especially since your band is a power trio? And the roar of the guitars is like a fitting wine: even if you eat poorly, there's always that which sets everything right. "All About Chemistry" is essentially a warm Sprite, water and sugar with no freshness and bubbles. An addition of a little red wine, as I say, would have transformed something unusable into a public house drink, but that was not the case.

The guitars are like a country wine, strong, "in pietra," as they say in my region. In America, they would say "in stone." Or perhaps, more properly, "in rock."