Written by Daniel Rourke
In 2014 The Smith
Street Band released the most definitive album of their career, ‘Throw Me
In The River.’ Released through Banquet Records in the UK, the band’s third
outing lead to an upgrade in venue sizes, as well as a trip around the European
festival circuit.
Almost three years on, the band are back with their follow
up to ‘Throw Me In The River,’ ‘More Scared of You Than You Are Of Me.’
Opening track Forrest
proves to be a nod to The Smith Street Band of old. As the title references the
Australian settlement in which the band recorded their breakout third record,
Wil Wagner’s frantically raucous vocals spit out a naïve clamber for understanding
that is so often found the band’s songs: “I
wanna kiss you on the mouth a little bit too hard / it took years to figure out
who we actually are.”
As Forrest bookends the Smith Street Band of previous years, Birthdays maturely saunters into the fray. The track proves to be the
perfect indicator of just where ‘More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me’ is
going, as Wagner uses the record to walk the listener through a failing relationship
built around his anxieties and his own mental health.
Mental health acts as the crux of the record, as self-deprecation,
doubt and a longing for understanding creep into almost every nook and cranny
time and again. Passiona plays
heavily into the these themes, as Wagner sings about his anxieties
and caring too much. It isn’t the only time Wagner bares his soul either, as the
sombre chords of It Kills Me To Have To
Be Alive act as the backdrop to one of the most honest songs he has ever
written.
Entangled in Wagner’s confessions of mental struggles is the overarching tale of a relationship gone sour, it's a battle that sees Wagner tackle the
fear of not being good enough in 25, and asking
the pertinent question of: “What if…” in Young
Once.
While The Smith Street Band tend to lean on the crutches of
Wagner’s ability to spin a tale that is not only emotive, but relatable, it’s
in ‘More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me’ that the band become noticeable as a
unit.
Whether it’s the dower mumbles of Wagner and his guitar in Laughing (Or Pretending To Laugh) that eventually
swell into something beautiful, the overwhelmingly brilliant opening of Suffer that sees Lee Hartney, Chris
Cowburn and Fitzy Fitzgerald produce a sound we haven’t heard from the band
before, or the occasional use of horn and string sections throughout the record,
there’s something both different and mature to be found in almost every track
on the band’s fourth outing.