Matt Skiba and the Sekrets
Babylon

Matt Skiba a guy from a trio forms another trio in order to create his own music without the compromises of creating music as a band, which is a noble thing to follow your own creative hunches and ideas and make them without compromise but it can also backfire as the feeback from a band can be really valuable. These Sekrets is Skiba’s own creation and the other guys are just helping him give life to his ideas, at least that is what the press info from Superball Music says. It is also the debut of this constellation and it is a debut with a cover art that does not give anything away in terms of what to expect but judging from reviews I have read we should expect something really good. The album is called Babylon and as I stated it is the debut of this trio which is led by Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba, so it would be fair to say that we should expect something punkish considering that Skiba’s usual trio plays just that

I have not heard Alkaline Trio but judging by the press info there are some songs on this album that are supposed to draw the thoughts towards those guys, but there’s more, synthpop influences, some very poppy choruses and also some hardrock touches just to spice it up a little. At first glimpse it will come out as a punk rock album considering the typical punk riffing in the first track and also it’s simple song structure. However, when looking a bit deeper more starts to reveal itself, the often silent synths that adds a deeper layer, the little additional elements that adds something you cannot really put your finger on, it is a rather varied album as well but without being fragmented. Production is modern and polished, on the surface it all looks fine. There are ten tracks to sink your teeth in and most are true to punk traditions by being short and to the point albeit the final track is seven minutes long thanks to a long silence in the end of it. 37 minutes this album plays for, which is a good playing time that I wish more bands would think about.

Anyway, I think this album is a decent album, there are some flashes of greatness like the track Falling Like Rain which has some synthpop touches and is a wonderful track to listen to. The I also thinks that the opener Voices and the fifth track The End of Joy are two other great tracks, but then? then comes nothing, or seven decent tracks that does not really do anything for me and they feel more like good filling material than anything I would really like to sink my teeth into. I do however think that fans of the modern punk rock will enjoy this album, and also fans of Skiba’s original band will probably find this being much better than I find it. After all the songs are not bad, none of them are and they are in tradition with the modern punk rock which is liked by both the children and their parents, and also by the radio. In other words it is a rather unspectacular album with some spectacular touches.

I can of course not give anything more than an approved rating to an album consisting of 70% filling material but nevertheless, those small flashes of brilliance makes it a hard album to just forget or dismiss.

HHHHHHH