“Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin,” is the almost perfect name for a band, enough to make you love ‘em even before they’ve played a single note: the name’s a little winsome, a little sophisticated, and unforgettable. Their first album, the mysteriously titled Broom proved that the winsome, unforgettable sophistication of their moniker was no accident. This was a band that could spin sweet melody after sweet melody, each leaving a light but very pleasant aftertaste.
Broom was short, clocking in at a little over thirty minutes, and gave you the sense that, as good as it was, this was a one-album band. Would they stick around longer than Boris Yeltsin? And if they did, would anyone remember who Boris Yeltsin was?
On their third album, titled Let It Sway, SSLYBY have endured, and even matured. One might worry whether this is a good thing. Part of the charm of Broom and 2008’s Pershing was that they had the sound of adolescent records, made by people with guitars and drums, jamming, and realizing that, hey, they were pretty good. As SSLYBY grew up and tasted fame, would they lose that sense of wonder and excitement that made their first album such a delightfully unexpected rush?
The opening track, “Back in the Saddle,” proves they’ve still got it. The song starts surprisingly slow, and hushed. This is not typical SSLYBY fare. But then the curtain lifts and—after a strange bird-like whistle—we’re off to the races, not too fast, but at a decent clip. Amazingly, when the vocals come back, the band sounds like they’re ripping off a Def Leppard chorus (think “Pour Some Sugar on Me”). And the trick really works. They’ve somehow managed to translate big hair, big guitar stylings into indie pop wonderfulness. It’s incredible, and it bodes well for the album, which then settles down in more familiar SSLYBY territory.
Which is not the same as settling. SSLYBY are certainly being more expansive in this album, trying out new things, and not being afraid to stretch songs past the 3 minute limit that seemed to fix the upper boundary of the tracks on Broom and most of Pershing. At the same time, this is definitely an album by a band digging in and finding their own sound. The title track, “Sink/Let it Sway” is the perfect example of this newfound confidence. You hear it, and you just know it’s a SSLYBY song. Where their last two albums featured a band still figuring itself out, with Let it Sway, they’re well on their way. Even when they sound like other bands (Def Leppard in “Back in the Saddle,” Spoon in “In Pairs”), they’re still working in the space created by their sound.
Not every song on this album is a winner—“Stuart Gets Lost Dans Le Metro” seems a little sleepy; the campiness of “All Hail Dracula!” is a too transparent; “Phantomwise” is an experiment that the band doesn’t quite pull off. Nevertheless, the album is greater than the sum of its parts. With Let it Sway, we have a band that has proven itself to be more than a flash in the pan, more than just a band with a cute name. Fittingly, the last track on the album is “Made to Last.” Yes, we can love you, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin—still.
Track List:
1. Back in the Saddle
2. Sink/Let It Sway
3. Banned by the Man
4. In Pairs
5. My Terrible Personality
6. Everlyn
7. Stuart Gets Lost in Dans Le Metro
8. All Hail Dracula!
9. Critical Drain
10. Animalkind
11. Phantomwise
12. Made to Last
