Smith Island, a band trying to bring back the Glam Rock era of rock in NYC, offers up their stab at it with their self titled EP. Why they have tried to make a pseudo concept record out of 5 boring songs, is beyond me.
Their concept, apparently, was the new idea of a female rocker living through the excesses of Rock 'n Roll. The drugs, the paranoia, blah, blah. If that hadn't been done to death over the past 30 years of Rock 'n Roll folklore, it could have been a cool idea. But wait, their songs aren't even good, so it would have sucked as an idea back then, because their execution was bad, too. Ziggy Stardust this ain't! And get this, the female Rocker's name? Zelda Zardoz!! My god, does it get any worse? Well, I haven't even mentioned the songs yet!
Smith Island is obviously trying to use the female lead singer idea of selling sex as their weapon, because the idea of crafting a song went unused. Lead singer, Gabrielle Stubbert sings at about the same pitch on each of the 5 songs on this EP and doesn't impress or offer anything as a singer. To be honest she sounds very boring and quite generic, and their songs seem to follow her lead. The one song with any glimmer of hope is the track "Coma". They actually show a bit of life on that one and are able to change tempo.
I'm told that Smith Island's claim to fame is their live show. Let's hope so, because they show no life on record. Anemic and weak are the best way to describe this 5 song EP. They sound very Glam without the Rock. The vocals are delivered the same way on each song and the music doesn't lend itself to go anywhere, which is a match made in the garbage. Glam Rock, even in the '70's, without a descent song or two just equals bad, and in 2007 it still equals bad. I don't know what Smith Island was really thinking with this self proclaimed, "docu-drama", but it is really boring and there isn't a real song in this bunch worth hearing again.
Track Listing
1) Asylum
2) Starfucking Your Way To Nowhere
3) Uncle Dick
4) Coma
5) In My Room
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