Smiling - Devour (Vinyl/Record)

Smiling is the brainchild of Annie Shaw, a guitarist, singer-songwriter, and performer. On August 6th, Smiling dropped their new album Devour exclusively on the New Noise Magazine website. Smiling was founded back in 2015 under the name Annie Girl and made a name for themselves by opening for Against Me! on several tours. The band finally headed into the studio under the name Smiling in 2016 with Josh Pollock on guitar, Mark Nelson on bass, and Sonny Pearce on drums. Nearly five years later, they have finally released their latest album Devour,  which happens to be psychedelic punk.

Devour has a variety of sounds on it but it mostly sounds like mid-2010s neo-psychedelia. The first several tracks are psychedelic/alternative rock tracks that are enjoyable, but not especially memorable. The album has a menace that’s reminiscent of angsty late 80s/early 90s alt-rock, but the band combines it with poppier, psychedelic sounds. Devour is relatively heavy as far as psychedelic rock goes, but it’s not heavy in the vein of traditional heavy acid rock. It’s a much more modern and alternative sound. The album is a fusion of pop and punk, mixed with psychedelia, but it’s not “pop-punk”.