4 keepers
keeper avg .444
"Only A Memory"****, which kicks-off The Smithereens' second album, begins like Revolver-era Beatles (specifically "I Want to Tell You"), and over a verse it progresses to something moodier, suggesting the collection of songs about relationship bummers to come. Elsewhere the 60's references are even more apparent. "Something New" and "Elaine" are minimally adapted 1963 Beatles, via "P.S. I Love You" and "Please Please Me" respectively, while the intro of "If the Sun Doesn't Shine" copies The Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby" competently.
Other songs, such as "House We Used to Live In", "The World We Know", and the particularly humorous title track**** (these green thoughts, wondering where you've been, maybe with my best friend, Dear God please stop me thinking these green thoughts), are fittingly infused with E Street bar band punch and 80's reverb, but they don't stray far from the power pop formula. Like the album's opener, the album's center track "Drown in My Own Tears"**** starts with the bar band foundation while Pat DiNizio's distressed vocal is regardless unabashedly melodic; it's an obvious dry run for the next album as DiNizio would double-down on the chunky/clunky guitar riffs and use a very similar vocal melody in exactly the same key on the big single "A Girl Like You." While bar band stomp and Beatle-esque jangle are fun and all, there are some welcome surprises when they slow it down. The jaunty "Especially For You" has a sullen but laid-back Burt Bacharach feel. The dazedly trippy "Spellbound" is darkly psychedelic, and while "Deep Black"**** is basically a subdued pop ditty, the arpeggiated riffs throughout and Jim Babjak's siren-y slide guitar lines are from somewhere else; I can't think of any song I've heard with that unique combination of elements.
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