Labels: Adagio830 – Protagonist
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This one came out of nowhere. At least I thought it did. Then I posted on the forum here asking why nobody had told me about this band, only for someone to quote a post from me in 2010 where I had raved about them. Uh oh. Mental faculties fading already…
So what do we have here? Well, Secret Smoker have delivered an LP full of absolute corking emo. They skilfully blend over-excited ragers full of frantic shirt tugging and wailing with mellowed out delights like “Crushed by Air”. It’s very much in the whole mid 00s ballpark, back when you got a guaranteed 1 awesome LP a year in this style. For me, this fits in perfectly with REDS, Life At These Speeds and Sinaloa. Back then, there was at least a few of us in the UK who listened to this stuff. Now, I don’t know any more. Certainly less than a few. I think though that if more people heard this record then they’d be excited, I mean, loads of people love Plaids, and although this is nowhere near as fast, it’s still infinitely nearer to hardcore than to pop punk. The album breezes by at 45rpm with never a dull moment, plenty of melodic fury to flail about to, I love how they are entirely capable of playing at full pelt and also ease off the gas. Also there’s a song with these super Evergreen-y basslines.
I like this an awful lot. It’s a toss up with the Slugs & Snails 10″ for best proper emo record of the year so far for my money.