Silversun Pickups
Carnavas

After the promising debut of the EP "Pikul," the California-based Silversun Pickups return with a full-fledged album, "Carnavas," already hailed by the overseas press as the return of shoegaze, a movement (if it can be defined as such) that has My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive as pioneers and perhaps its greatest exponents.

The album's debut is almost electrifying, that "Melatonin" reminiscent of the Pumpkins which, through excellent vocal work, manages to recreate those ethereal atmospheres so dear to Corgan and company. The track convinces right from the first listen, though it's a pity that guitars in high-volume feedback and that "dream pop" aura that envelops the entire "Carnavas" are things that have been heard and reheard; it's a pity that the album only partially manages to maintain the quality standards of "Melatonin"... a pity about several things, in short, but let's go in order.

After the more than negligible "Well Thought Out Twinkles," which, in its hodgepodge of 90's references, has an almost Stoner cadence, we return to the style of Kevin Shields with "Checkered Floor," but especially with perhaps the album's happiest track, "Little Lover So Polite" which, believe it or not, almost seems like a cover of the early Verdena. "Lazy Eye," more than a standalone track, is an evident tribute to the Pumpkins and, in particular, to that "1979" which is recognized (uncomfortably) from a practically identical drum pattern from start to finish... In short, a fluctuating album that readapts the shoegaze sound without, however, managing to go beyond it in any of the, albeit good, episodes of "Carnavas": such evident comparisons become annoying if after a first listen you realize the lack of personality of the tracks. Their assimilation of 90's sounds, from the already mentioned shoegaze to grunge, from stoner to dream pop, nonetheless succeeds in giving a cohesive cut to the entire work, and what results is all in all more than pleasant.

But let's not call it neo-gaze, because it might be the time that Shields and My Bloody Valentine, annoyed by the proliferation of (more or less) clone bands, return to the studio. For real.