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3 Out Of 5 Stars
In reviewing the first two albums by Semi-Precious Weapons, "We Love You" and "You Love You," I made a comment along of the lines that this was a band that could scare church ladies. With a flamboyantly glam approach and lead weapon Justin Tranter, SPW dropped guitar firecrackers of gleefully tasteless rock that seemingly came from a collision with AC/DC and T.Rex. There was little else out there that sounded remotely like it, and I was hooked.
The SPW band that made those two albums is virtually unrecognizable from the one that delivered "Aviation." Instead of having producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T.Rex) man the boards, this time they have producer "Tricky," whose best known client is Beyonce. They've gone from "Rebel Rebel" to "Single Ladies." They've gone from opening for Lady Gaga's concerts to actively courting Gaga's consumers. Bye bye, crunchalicious guitar chords, hello throbbing synths and drum machines. It's not a pretty transition.
There are a few songs that keep the winking wit of before in place, like "Cherries On Ice" and "Vegas," where Tranter wails "it's time to go to Vegas...and forget about you." In fact, if it weren't for Tranter's charisma, "Aviation" would just be another run of the mill synth-heavy pop album. They aren't dangerous anymore. They want your attention, and they were willing to go to that fork in the road that asked them if they'd try a third album of the music that wasn't getting anywhere commercially and see if the third time was the charm, or take that fork towards a more mainstream sound. If it's really the record they wanted to make, great (After all, I still bought it). But nothing here comes close to the fury of "Magnetic Baby" or "Leave Your Pretty to Me's" pleas for acceptance. Blandness was the last thing I expected from this bunch and "Aviation" just that. Bland.
