Sickerthings, the / As Good As You Feel
Album: As Good As You Feel   Collection:General
Artist:Sickerthings, the   Added:Jan 2005
Label:Malvado  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2005-04-17 Pull Date: 2005-06-19
Week Ending: May 1 Apr 24
Airplays: 2 2

Recent Airplay
1. Apr 28, 2005: Megatron Marathon
Happy When You're not Around
3. Apr 21, 2005: Happy Hour
Don't See Anyway Out of Here
2. Apr 27, 2005: Strange Attractor
Happy When You're not Around
4. Apr 21, 2005: Megatron Marathon
You're not the Only One

Album Review
Margot Seeto
Reviewed 2005-04-07
Bay Area power pop-sters, with British influences. Very Blur-esque. The band sings with a slight British tilt, as well. Three guys. They say their lyrics are influenced by The Smiths. As album goes on, many songs have similar echo-y male vocals often not louder than the instrumental accompaniment. Kind of dreamy/spacey/psychedelic. Non-intrusive tracks, for the most part.
1)*“You’re Not The Only One” (2:47). Cool distorted intro, with glitchy, silent pauses. 0:23 richer soundscape: swishy scratches, bass, guitar. 0:56 switches to different type of sound, and again to more conventional power pop arrangement. Male vox. 1:59 FCC: “fuckin” (but slightly distorted).
2) “Will You Still Love Me When It’s Over?” (4:32). Slightly psychedelic. Intro: slower guitar chords and bass line until 0:30, when softer male vox start. Two part, overlapping vocal harmonies. Some gentle “aaahh’s.” End around 4:24.
3) “Strolling On Down To The Sea” (3:17). Mid-tempo and mellow. Intro: drawn-out guitar chords, with bass filling in rests. Then more focus on vox and higher-pitched simple percussion for about half the song, in alternating chunks. Some male vox back-up harmonies. End at 3:11.
4) “I Hope I Never Come Back” (4:05). Moodier, with dirtier guitar, slower. 0:10 drums in. 0:20 dronier male vox, almost monotonous and whiny/nasal-y (but not in a bad way). 1:14 interesting vocal arrangement. After 2:13 occasional slight spacey sound in background. End at 4:02.
5)*“Don’t See Anyway Out Of Here” (2:57). More upbeat melody, but not corny. Brighter guitar. Vox at 0:25, back to echo-ier and higher. End around 2:55.
6)*“Happy When You’re Not Around” (4:28). Quieter: male vox and slightly jangly/distorted electric acoustic guitar with tinny, very high distorted guitar. Vox quite prominent in this sound. At times reminds me of Oasis/Blur hybrid. End around 4:20.
7) “Pretty Girls” (3:12). Switches between dissonant chorus and poppier verses. Opens with drumstick beats and microphone overmodulation. Some yelling in the chorus. Otherwise, softer head-swaying verses. End at 3:08.
8)*“Sing To Me” (4:13). Spacily distorted and fuzzy guitar. 0:11 vox, with fuzzy guitar. 0:42, chorus gets echo-ier in vox, with slightly faster tempo. Pattern repeats for rest of song. Last minute of song is repetitive. End at 4:09.
9) “Slip Away” (3:24). Starts with “aaahh’s” and instruments immediately. Sometimes a hypnotic singing up the scale, or guitar imitating vocal melody. Also, “doo doo’s.”
10) “As Good As You Feel” (4:20). Jangly tambourine with the band. 0:14 the usual echo-y male vox, which in this song tends to slide notes in the same word at the end of a line. End at 4:17.
11)* “This Is Love” (3:54). Also quieter, vox not as echo-y. Acoustic chords dominate, with far-away sounding electric guitar occasionally. Vox at 0:17. Sort of reminds me of Badly Drawn Boy. End at 3:50.
12) Bonus Track (1:18). No sound until 0:22. Then low-distortion, mid-tempo poppy electric guitar chords with clap-like percussion. Starts fading out, quiet at 1:11.
-margot

Track Listing
1. You're not the Only One   6. Happy When You're not Around
2. Will You Still Love Me When   7. Pretty Girls
3. Strolling on Down to the Sea   8. Sing to Me
4. I Hope I Never Come Back   9. Slip Away
5. Don't See Anyway Out of Here   10. As Good As You Feel
  11. This Is Love