And by “OK” I basically mean “not worthy of adulation, nor of an immediate channel/frequency change once one of their songs starts playing from a media outlet,” and “vaguely interested, enough to possibly buy a record by them if it’s in the Amazon MP3 discount bin.” The video for their new single “Substitution” came out today; it was on AMTV—the six-hour block of music-video programming that every person who complains about MTV’s lack of music-related content seems to forget about, perhaps because it’s on in prime getting-ready-for-work time—this morning, and it was fine enough to take me through a few minutes during the 7 a.m. hour. Not great, vaguely recognizable as a Silversun Pickups song, and a cute video. In this cultural moment of the Internet breaking out in hate-hives over and over again, I think that’s just enough for me to ask for, no? Clip after the jump.
Silversun Pickups – Substitution [mtvU]
We’ll meet the Silversun Pickups again on their long journey to the middle.
I’ve really enjoyed most of what I’ve heard of the Silversun Pickups, but I much prefer them at their more melancholy / gauzier, rather than this kind of faceless powerpop stuff.
Or to be a little harsher: this sounds like a castoff from an All-American Rejects album, with the hook scrubbed away.