On their 1986 debut, Especially For You, New Jersey’s power pop kings were in full-on Anglophile frenzy, liberally plundering The Beatles and Stones back catalogues for spot-on harmonies and crunchy guitar hooks. Two years later, Green Thoughts saw them broadening their palette to deliver a veritable jukebox of radiofriendly styles.
Singer and chief writer Pat DiNizio makes a creditable stab at early Beach Boys on If The Sun Doesn’t Shine, dips his toe in a bathtub of Bacharach on Especially For You (left off the preceding album of the same name), and does his best Eddie Cochran impersonation on Elaine. It’s all great fun, performed with delicacy and an innate understanding of what makes an eminently hummable tune.
Hardly the greatest innovators, The Smithereens’ eagerness to soak up the sounds of others has arguably hampered their quest for widespread popularity. Their most recent album, a song-for-song recreation of the Fabs’ first US long-player, is unlikely to redress affairs. That’s never seemed to bother them, though, as they soldier on in a four-man celebration pop’s rich past. It’s a party that’s always worth crashing.
