Saosin, the band whose name everyone thinks they know how to pronounce, has finally settled down to record a full-length LP whose anticipation rivals that for Brand New’s The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. Three years in the making, most of which was spent on the road rather than in the studio, Saosin’s self-titled debut full-length is a compelling, cohesive album that does not disappoint.
An epic rock band deserves an epic rock album. We’re not talking mascara, big hair and pyrotechnics; rather, this quintet (mostly, originally) from California has been thriving off 2½ EPs, touring incessantly, reaching out to fans, and never failing to kick out their and everyone else’s jams. Thus they grew an incredible fanbase, who took care of each other way before the MySpace era, swapping bootlegs of live shows, flooding messageboards with announcements of acoustic specials, and even leaking unreleased tracks.
Instrumentally superb and vocally satisifying, Saosin and Cove Reber – the band’s answer to original lead singer Anthony Green’s sudden departure in 2003 – solidify and secure their place in rock with this well thought-out album. They shy away from the screaming found on earlier material, and channel their technical skills into a more accessible, less aneurysm-inducing sound. (This is not to say some prefer the latter.) The band also has produced a relative rarity of an album, as attention to detail reveals subtle transitions between tracks, a nice gesture for the listener who sits down to listen to the album from track 1 to 12.
However, indies beware! The brilliant production by Howard Benson (Hoobastank, My Chemical Romance, All American Rejects) is a double-edged sword which cuts both as “masterfully produced” and “overly produced.” This skepticism of talent would probably be met with any other band starting off on Capitol Records with a talent like Benson in the recording studio, but vaporizes in the presence of a band such as Saosin who has, to say the least, “street cred.”
-JP
Recent and Upcoming:
September 26, 2006 – Saosin
Summer 2005 – Saosin [EP]
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