★★★★★
After two albums of Beatles covers, another blasting through the majority of the Who's "Tommy," a Christmas release and a live disc, Smithereens fans were probably wondering when, or even if, the group would get around to recording another set of new songs. Twelve years after the quartet's last batch of originals it's here, a true return to form right down to a title that references 1989's Smithereens 11...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
In interest of full disclosure here's the conflict of interest statement Popdose Legal forces us to write on occasions like these: Fellow music critics use my Smithereens addiction as a cudgel against me, challenging my very ability to evaluate music in general because of it...
- popdose.com
2011-04-26
★★★★★
In interest of full disclosure here's the conflict of interest statement Popdose Legal forces us to write on occasions like these: Fellow music critics use my Smithereens addiction as a cudgel against me, challenging my very ability to evaluate music in general because of it...
- popdose.com
2011-04-26
★★★★★
Like an R.E.M. from stinky New Jersey, the Smithereens trolled the corners of "I Love the '60s" territory, refashioning the crunchy power pop of the Kinks and the Who for '80s college kids suspicious of synths. Where the boys from Athens used nostalgia as a launching pad into beauty and mystique, they rarely progressed beyond finely crafted pastiche...
- www.blender.com
2010-08-22
★★★★★
As the alt.rock scene began seeping overground in mid-'80s America, The Smithereens were almost alone in championing the beat-pop of The Kinks, Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello, and their crisp melodic punch seemed almost sedate alongside Hüsker Dü and The Replacements. Honed by producer Don Dixon, second LP Green Thoughts is a hook-crammed feast of guitar rock, tempered by narcotic ballads and a melancholic world view...
- www.uncut.co.uk
2010-06-19
★★★★★
All pop propaganda to the contrary, Pat DiNizio's no surefire songwriter--he's only moderately hooky, and even the lyrics he hits encapsulates romantic situations you already know the ins and outs of. Takes some singer to score consistently with such songs, and no pop propagandists are palming off that lie.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
I know Pat DiNizio is Beatlesque, but is that why he writes cheerful-sounding love songs that turn out to be kind of mean when you pay attention? Or allows as how he's a jealous guy? I suspect he would have discovered these creative avenues on his own, spurred by deep expressive need.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
You have to
admire the 'Reens' tenacity. On The Smithereens fourth album, A Date With the Smithereens (RCA), singer-guitarist
Pat DiNizio's crew pounds out more guitar-driven power pop that
resurrects the ancient art of melody. Plus, you have to grin at a
title like ''Sick of Seattle.'' That defiantly old-wave musical view
shows up in the ''Taxman'' groove of ''Gotti,'' and the ''Tobacco Road''
echoes of ''Can't Go Home Anymore...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
By rights, the fourth album bythis band of earnest retro-rockers should be their worst. Whilestaying true to their roots in '60s Merseybeat-inspired guitarcrunch, the Smithereens decided it's time for the kitchen-sinkapproach on Blow Up. There are collaborations with Julian Lennon andsongwriter-for-hire Diane Warren, plenty of string sections andhorns, and, in the words of Capitol Records, the band's first"overtly political" song...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
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