All Die Young – Smith Westerns
It’s pretty easy to get into my good graces. While I have my occasional pretensions to being a musical sophisticate, when it all comes down you really just need to remember a couple simple things. 1) The Beatles are great. 2) You’re not as great as The Beatles so don’t shamelessly rip them off. 3) But if you can steal a little something, and give it some real spirit, you’ll go far.
“All Die Young” puts this 3-step plan to the test, and come through with flying colors. Sonically, it’s not really a Beatles knockoff so much as it’s an ELO knockoff. Big psych-drenched slide guitar movements, bombastic presentation, and a singer who is a dead ringer for Jeff Lynne. What’s not to like? But while the first half of the song is plenty good, the thing that really kicks it into the stratosphere is the final third, which totally rips off the coda of “Oh Yoko” but does it with sure assuredness and passion that you just can’t help but love it.
Smith Westerns used to be a fuzzy garage rock band, but they’ve got a label and cleaned up apparently. The record is called Dye It Blond.