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New Album: Silversun Pickups Tenterhooks

Silversun Pickups lay off the synths and lean hard into the sound that made them amongst the best alt-rock bands of the last two decades with their new album Tenterhooks.

It’s easy to forget, especially in today’s world of repetitively recycled synth and electronic bass driven pop, that live instrument driven music remains the pinnacle of creative, and artistic, music composition. The electric guitar continues to be one of the most expressive and organic instruments at the forefront of creative popular music. Hours of practice and experimentation with different sounds, pedals, and amplifiers is required to become a master of the medium of guitar playing and graduate to a composer whose creations are not only inspired, but, to borrow a term, rocking. Popular rock bands, and solo musicians, that utilize the electric guitar in their compositions, much like Silversun Pickups often acquire longevity and perpetuity. 

So when a guitar rock band debuts with a multi layered, powerfully overdubbed, wall of sound that drives their compositions to comparisons with other powerful guitar driven predecessors like Smashing Pumpkins and The Pixies, yet finds a way to articulate their own musical voice, and then backs away from that sound, much like Silversun Pickups did for a stretch, it is a bit of a tragedy for not only popular music, but the for band’s earliest fans as well as for the genre itself. Silversun Pickups solidified their status as a 1990s inspired rock outfit with their breakout hit “Lazy Eye” off their major label debut album Carnavas (2006). Their multilayed, heavy guitar riffs coupled with shoegazy leanings launched the band to the forefront of the heavier, alternative rock genre that bands like Smashing Pumpkins occupied in the previous decade. 

In hindsight it’s a little silly to consider a band that broke into the mainstream in the year 2006, a year that’s only 6 years removed from the 1990s, as “1990s inspired,” but that’s where the Silversun Pickups landed under the microscope of critical examination. The moniker was valid, as the band indulged in many 90s alt-rock characteristics like the “loud-quiet dynamic” and unique vocals; the Silversun Pickup’s lead singer and guitarist, Brian Aubert, has a unique, androgynous voice that is as instantly recognizable as it is different from many rock singers who front the type of bands that play the type of music SIlversun Pickups do. Nevertheless, through two full albums, the aforementioned Carnavas (2006) and its follow up Swoon (2009), Silversun Pickups carried into the 21st Century the type of alt-rock that defined a generation. 

Then with Neck of the Woods (2012) the band took a decided step back from the type of guitar rock that established them and instead began a several album retreat from the “grunge in furs” approach (which is yet another Smashing Pumpkins’ comparison) of their first few albums. Perhaps that sound positioned them a little too closely (unjustly) in imitation of their musical forefathers. The rhythms in the album’s songs became slightly more anxiety ridden, as well as danceable, and the guitar lines became more clean and sparse. Gone, for the most part, was the wall of sound that buoyed the first two albums. The next two albums, Better Nature (2015) and to a somewhat lesser extent Widow’s Weeds (2019) took the band further down the path of retreat from the sound of their first two albums, reinforcing the more sparse, and at times experimental, guitar sound that came to define their sound for these three albums. While the songwriting remained strong, “Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance)” being a prime example, for the fans (like myself) who got onboard behind Aubert’s loud, fuzzed out, and heavily layered guitar work, the band became less and less interesting, as a rock band. 

Nonironically, when Butch Vig came onboard to produce Widow’s Weeds (2019) the louder, more aggressive and fuzzed out guitar lines started to creep back into the band’s songs, sparingly. To some, Vig’s involvement might represent a step back for Silversun Pickups since Vig was the producer of the Smashing Pumpkins’ legendary album Siamese Dream (1993) and helped Billy Corgan erect his own wall of guitar sound with all its wail and weight. United with Corgan’s legendary producer (and mastermind behind the band Garbage), Silversun Pickups might have fallen into the trap of making Swoon II. Instead, Vig steered the band down a middle path that incorporated the guitar sounds of the band’s early albums with the clean toned experimentalism of the middle albums. Physical Thrills (2022), the second album Vig produced with Silversun Pickups, pushed the slight return of the original sound of their first two albums on Widows Weeds (2019) towards the forefront again, but the partnership between Aubert and Vig reached its peak with Silversun Pickups’ newest masterpiece of an album, Tenterhooks (2026), where the songs are the complete product of both of the band’s signature sounds. 

The amalgamation of the sound of Silversun Pickups’ early and middle albums is evident in Tenterhooks’ opening track, “New Wave.” The song features some of the band’s most atmospheric guitar that morphs into one of the band’s heaviest riffs. The lead guitar is grungy and fuzzy, but Nikki Monniger’s bass and Chris Guanlao’s drums pierce through the wave of Aubert’s leads with crystal clarity. “New Wave” announces the band’s new direction which melds the bands best parts of its past. “The Wreckage” continues the band’s evolution through reflection, but it’s “Au Revoir Reservoir” where the album really takes off. Fuzzy, buzzy guitar leads coupled with thick bass lines and clean tones slice the sonic landscape into deliciously heavy slices of rhythmic bliss that take Silversun Pickups to new heights. This is the sound of a mature band that knows what it wants to sound like and wrestles it into existence. 

The band continues to serve up song after song that follows this new pattern of making the most of the old and the new. The alarum clang of “Wakey Wakey” recalls the most anxiety ridden sounds of the band’s past catalogue, then blends seamlessly into “Witness Mark” where Aubert’s inspired blend of bridging and soloing re-emerges after a rather long hiatus. “Thorns and All” despite being the song that most calls back to the sound of the first two albums, is one of this album’s standout tracks. It’s the song on the album that will make fans of Silversun Pickups’ original sound the most happy. “Long Gone” is an acoustic guitar driven excursion that borders on Spanish guitar ballad territory, but never devolves into one. “Running out of Sounds” is the album’s most quiet song. It’s mostly piano, horns, and simple beats. It serves as a non intrusive interlude before the closing tracks “Interrobang” with its very obviously Vig influenced guitar overdubs and “Hot Wired,” another masterful song that pulls together the best of Silversun Pickups’ nearly two decades worth of sounds. 

Tenterhooks (2026) is more than just a career pinnacle album for Silversun Pickups and a rousing reinforcement of a style of rock music that remains generation-defining. It’s that rare album where it sounds just as good in your headphones as on your stereo, and will undoubtedly sound good played live in clubs and arenas. One expects little else from a Butch Vig produced album, but one might be a little surprised to have received this type of album from Silversun Pickups at this point in their career. Despite Aubert’s and his band’s lament that they might be “running out of sounds” like the song of the same title suggests, Tenterhooks (2026) dispels that notion and instead suggests that Silversun Pickups’ best work just might still be ahead of them. 

Carolina's based writer/journalist Andy Frisk love music, and writing, and when he gets to intermingle the two he feels most alive. Covering concerts and albums by both local and national acts, Andy strives to make the world a better place and prove Gen X really can still save the world.

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