Smash Palace – 7 (Zip)
I lost touch with Smash Palace after their first four albums, but I’m extremely pleased to re-acquaint myself with a guitar pop band who I always felt should be held in the same high regard as Fountains Of Wayne and Matthew Sweet. Indeed, Smash Palace’s seventh record (the imaginatively titled “7”) confirms everything I suspected. Their style of pop, which is both extremely catchy and accessible - though never throwaway - borrows from the best. Slower songs, “Holding Out For You” and “Secret Life” are very much Beatles influenced, without being derivative. When they’re turning it up and going for it, they’re just as choosey with their influences. “Win It All” is Motors(esque) and urgently needs a home on the radio, “How Can You Say?” is a toe-tapping blend of CvS, Rubinoos and Badfinger.

I’m going to have to find the albums I’m missing from my collection sooner rather than later.
www.myspace.com/smashpalace

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