By Samuel Rubenfeld
In many ways a purely live act, a studio album can never really do Secret Machines enough justice. Nevertheless Ten Silver Drops, their second full-length album, is solid, achieving atmospheric heights and jarring lows with more specified lyrics and a honed message.
The band takes 40 years of music and makes it their own. They incorporate everything from the power-drumming of Led Zeppelin to the ethereal soundscapes of Neu! to the craziness of Pink Floyd to the arena rock big sound of U2.
Drops features an array of sounds, from the ’80s lite-rock of “Alone, Jealous, and Stoned,” to the mesmerizing, pulsing rhythm of “I Hate Pretending,” with its apocalyptic drum solo and burgeoning wall of sound.
The songwriting is more focused than ever. The band wrote most of the songs on Drops during the tour supporting Nowhere, and they collectively decided that the songs needed to be more focused on this release. The last full-length was written 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 have been known to release their albums digitally weeks before the disc hits retailers, and this one is no exception. The digital release is available now on iTunes, Napster, and other digital music programs, before the album’s official release date of April 25.