Shiny Toy Guns show growth, better sense of self on sophomore album
November 6, 2008
Shiny Toy Guns are in their teen years.
It’s only their second album, but the disc shows growth and a stronger point of view of who they are as musicians.
“Season of Poison” opens more like an emo album would rather than an electronica album. Early on, with “When Did This Storm Begin?” and “Money For That,” Shiny Toy Guns veer from their more popular synth-pop identity to sound like a cross between Straylight Run and My Chemical Romance.
The male-female harmonies from Gregori Chad Petree and Sisely Treasure draw the listener into an emotional yet formulaic wave of sound. It’s not how their debut album, “We Are Pilots” sounded, but the listener still recognizes the familiar theatricality of the band’s music.
The electric guitars and screaming continue into the album’s single, “Ricochet!” Only two-and-a-half minutes long, this song is a near-complete crossover into heavy metal. Stellar and raucous at its best, this song was a great choice for a single.
It exhibits the new work the group has done while still advertising the band as the same group that won a Grammy nomination for its first album.
After “Ricochet!” the album drops off into the less-exciting half of the record. “Season of Love” is sentimental and reflective, the opposite of the single. The entire album exhibits characteristics of flowing, exuberant new-wave music. While predominantly electronica, it isn’t all fast and disco.
The disc experiments with everything from alternative emo rock to goth to dramatic theater-type tunes.
The album has a lot of outstanding aspects, none of which really seem to form a cohesive sense of unity, though. Driving goth rock guitars in “Ghost Town” and “Blown Away” are aspects of which the listener could use more.
“Season of Poison” is nearly a complete departure from “We Are Pilots.” Fans of the disco beats and electronics will still enjoy the new album, but fans from other genres will be drawn to the new sounds as well.