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The Smittens, The Coolest Thing About Love

by dave heaton

The Smittens, of Burlington Vermont, open their new album The Coolest Thing About Love with a great anthem for touring DIY bands: "The Interstate". Low-key at first and then exuberant, the song is a litany of cities focused on the people who live there and the people who are on the road. And of course, love is involved: "Next exit, the way back to your heart."

On that song and just about everywhere the Smittens are a bouncy, play-together / sing-together group, a synthesis of the five members plus their friends. As I hear it, they're integrating their various inclinations, voices and skills better than ever: trading off verses, alternating who sings lead song-to-song, and operating as a seamless group of pop-loving, melody-and-positive-energy-loving musician-friends. In my book the Smittens are one of the few cuter-than-cute bands that doesn't make you feel over-run by cuteness, by too-impossible-to-be-real optimism. There's a few reasons for that. One is their talent for melodies, real ones with substance and accessibility, not disposability. Another is that they're not taking themselves too seriously, which makes their sense of fun more honestly infectious; for example, how can you not love a song called "It's a Saturday!" where the key lyric is the sing-along "What the fuck, [person's name], it's a Saturday!"

But just as important is that they don't shy from the colder facts of life. The love mentioned in the title isn't just that giddy, can't-control-it, joyous love. It's also love that's sad, that contains inevitable disappointments. The first single from the album, "Gumdrops", does contain the line "Goodie goodie gumdrops", and is about a crush, but there's a sullen-ness to it, with "where you been?" the important follow up to the sentiment "I really like you."

A running through-line of love, with all its joys and disappointments, is formed from a series of little love letters written and sung by Dana Kaplan. "11:11" is all about anticipation; "Baby Don't You Know" strikes a short sweet note of devotion. But then there's also "100 Roses", where she acknowledges, "But I can't take care of you like I want to / and I can't look after you like I ought to do / it doesn't mean I care any less / it only means that I'm a mess myself."

That's a central part of the fabric of The Coolest Thing About Love too, even though the fun and sweetness are what you notice first. Within that sweetness is of course sadness too, and it makes everything stronger – the emotions and the songs.

{www.hhbtm.com}


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