Sean Smith
Underachiever
© 2005 Pawned Tunes (837101103138)
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"Rock 'n Roll the way it should be done." -Harris Radio, NYC
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Underachiever is the first solo release from storied NYC musician Sean Smith (formerly of Pawnshop).
With tracks produced by David Immerglück (Counting Crows) and Jesse Malin, recorded in Los Angeles and New York respectively, Underachiever features some of the top musicians of both cities. Joining Smith's warm, shimmering acoustic, Immerglück holds down wailing pedal steel and lap steel, plus bass, along with Counting Crows bandmate Charles Gillingham on piano, Wurlitzer, and organ. Back in New York, Christine Smith (Malin, Ryan Adams, Crash Test Dummies) accompanies on keyboards and vocals, along with Amalia Daskalakis (MadJuana) on viola.
Smith's music hearkens to Paul Westerberg, Elvis Costello, Big Star, and the Kinks in its lyrical preciseness, raw moods, wit, grit, and power. Singing of love won and lost, inebriated evenings one block south of Houston with the radio on, promises made and broken, and the crash of nameless (although sometimes quite pinpointed) desire, his soulful voice reaches out and wraps you in the vision of his emotion.
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Americana at its best
In "Underachiever," Sean Smith has taken the pure rock of his storied punk-rock past and transformed it into an emotional, evocative set of songs and a sound all of his own. Dave Immrgluck's steel frames Smith's reedy, on-the-edge vocals...it's that "story at the end of the universe" kind of feeling you get, like this is someone who's seen his truths for what they are and can only share them in the most brutally honest way possible, enveloped in subtle yet hard-hitting metaphors...like Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, and Hemingway. There is a thread of deep love throughout, a darkness at times like on Big Star's "Third/Sister Lovers," and an unbridled joy in the warmth of memory... it's interesting to see the combination of a Buddy Holly-esque adolescent excitement and desire combined with serious emotionality and stoned beauty, similar to Ryan Adam's "Heartbreaker." All in all, an excellent production (I especially love the slightly-out piano played by Chris Seefried, and Charlie Gillingham's amazing Wurlitzer parts) ..I can't wait to hear the full length.