New album by Smile Empty Soul lacks originality but unveils decent songs

Whatever 3 I said — PHOTO: Fair use of photo courtesy of http://www.smileemptysoul.com/

Your soul may be empty but after you hear this album it may bring you a smile. Smile Empty Soul is from Santa Clara, California and they’re a Post Grunge/Alt Rock band. This is technically Smile Empty Soul’s sixth album that they’ve made but their second album didn’t release due to issues with Lava records. The album wasn’t’ able to release later until 2009 on Itunes.

The band is different because they only have three members instead of a standard four, but its made up by the singer also playing guitar. The band used to have four members but Mike Booth (former lead guitar) split with the band and they’ve yet to find a replacement for him. The current band line up is Sean Danielsen (lead vocals, lead rhythm guitar), Ryan Martin (bass guitar), and Jake Kilmer (drums, backup vocals).

Smile Empty Soul released their album 3’s on May 22 produced by EOne Music. The single track on the album was “Afterlife” which did not chart. Afterlife is a medium tempo song which sounds pretty standard for many alternative songs. Compared to the other tracks on the album it doesn’t stand out to me and I feel it’s nothing special. Personally I think “Hard Biter” would’ve made for a better single because I enjoy the guitar more, its ending is much better and has an intro with a good buildup. “Carve” would’ve also been a good single due to its great intro, faster tempo and great vocals.

The total length of the album is 44:22 and the track names are “Carve”, “Ugly”, “Warning”, “Sleep Deprivation”, “Hiding Place”, “Lets Go”, “Basement”, “Afterlife”, “Greatest Hits and Medleys”, “Hard Biter”, “Wrecking Ball”, and “Not Alike”.

The artwork of the album is interesting because everything (but the clouds) fit to the name 3’s. There are three bears that are each trying to catch one of three fish that are in one of the three areas of water under one of the three different moons. There is a full moon, a half moon, and an almost covered moon.

The album itself isn’t really that special and it doesn’t bring any new styles to the table, but it’s still done pretty well. I really enjoy the sound but that’s also the problem; I’ve enjoyed this sound about 10 times already. This should only be a problem for you if you like to listen to ‘90s rock where everything kind of already sounds similar.

This album is still pretty good with every track sounding just fine but none of them excelling to the point of greatness. With that said the album scores a 7/10, little points on originality but a good score when it comes to the actual performance of said songs.

Links to the songs:
Carve
Ugly
Warning
Sleep Deprivation
Hiding Place
Lets Go
Basement
Afterlife
Greatest Hits and Medleys
Hard Biter
Wrecking Ball
Not Alike