Ten Silver Drops galls gracefully to ears

By Paul Tsikitas
Collegian Staff
April 26, 2006

When it comes to new artists, The Secret Machines are at the top of the heap in making quality recordings. With only two albums and two EPs under the band’s belt, The Secret Machines have made a name for themselves as quality musicians, songwriters and performers. The band’s second full length album Ten Silver Drops has been available digitally for almost two months now, but is finally available at your local record store.

Ten Silver Drops is an album about isolation. The band wrote most of the songs after it was finished an 18-month tour behind the first album Now Here is Nowhere. When they came back to their family and friends, there was a sense of change and separation that the arduous tour inflicted on their personal lives.

This feeling transcribes over to the music perfectly. With icy guitar tones, trembling vocal performances from Brandon Curtis and hypnotic rhythms spouted out by the drums and bass, the listener will get sucked into a soundscape that is both beautiful and poignant.

The album feels much like the band’s last release The Road Leads Where It’s Lead EP. Although that EP was mostly covers, it was the most touching work the band had put out thus far. The heartbreaking feeling of the renditions of Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks” and Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” showed the track that The Secret Machines were on. Ten Silver Drops follows this feeling, but with all new original material.

The album starts of with “Alone, Jealous and Stoned,” which will immediately put the listener in the zone for what the rest of the album has to offer. The clean and clear guitars and twinkling synthesizers in the background make you feel as if you are dreaming. This is carried over to the next two songs.

“All At Once (It’s Not Important)” shows the sheer frustration of a relationship gone sour. The delivery of the lyrics is filled with emotion that gives a genuine feel to the songs.

“Lightning Blue Eyes,” which is the first single off the album, shows that a relatively unknown band can deliver just as much power and beauty in a pop song as Coldplay or U2 could construct – not to mention that this song is better than the output of those said bands in the past two years.

The album takes a progressive turn with “Daddy’s in the Doldrums.” The song screams of Pink Floyd as it sprawls over eight minutes of hypnotizing drums, building guitar licks and a foreboding feeling. Through the sounds, the listener feels as if dark clouds are sprawling across the sky as the song progresses and bursts into a storm of sound as the breakdown explodes. “Doldrums” is guaranteed to be a fan favorite once they go on tour behind this album.

“I Hate Pretending” starts off drowned out and devoid of all sound but quickly explodes in a furious pace as it picks up speed. The paranoia of the lyrics is balanced perfectly by the instruments. One can’t help but look over his or her shoulder for “the undercover cop parked right across the road” as the guitars come howling in and out of your ears.

As the album comes to a close in the next three tracks, a melancholy air is returned after the middle rock section that preceded it. Between the acoustic intro and background of a rain storm on “I Want to Know,” the mesmerizing sounds of “Faded Lines” and the final choir laden harmonies of “1,000 Seconds,” listeners get an album that slowly builds into one of the most dynamic Secret Machines album to date.

Ten Silver Drops has the potential of a pop-rock album with its great production value and melodic sounds, but will go overlooked by most music listeners. The Secret Machines are one of the best bands writing music out there today. The ability to write solid albums and elaborate the sounds of those records when brought onto the stage show the talent of the band. As far as underappreciated artists go, The Secret Machines are sure to break out of the unknown and into the ears of listeners around the world with Ten Silver Drops.

tsikitp1@lasalle.edu