CDVS: Secret Machines vs. Pink Floyd

Rock bands will tell you they don't like being directly compared with anyone. But in this day and age of short-attention-span music criticism, the most influential portion of a band's coverage is the file-under factor, in which album reviews are accompanied by a sidebar that gives two or three examples of what the band and/or recording sounds like. For better or worse, comparing a band with another, more established one not only directs music fans, but music critics as well.

Enter acclaimed Dallas trio Secret Machines, who can barely get through an interview or review without being sonically associated with Pink Floyd--a band that, surprisingly, doesn't come up too much in file-under practice outside of Radiohead, Mercury Rev and the shoegazer bands of the "120 Minutes" era. Since the Secret Machines employ a fair number of guitar and keyboard effects that give their sound a heady space-rock resonance, people immediately recall Pink Floyd. But while falling prey to the file-under factor as both reader and writer, this hack doesn't hear much Roger Waters.

Secret Machines' debut album, Now Here Is Nowhere, does feature some of the psychedelic sprawl, ambient rock and decompressed song structures that Pink Floyd is renowned for. But those same elements also characterize bands like the Flaming Lips and Spiritualized. If the Secret Machines are aping anyone, it's them, along with the more melodic late '80s/early '90s Brit bands such as the Boo Radleys, Ride and even My Bloody Valentine.

Then there's Pink Floyd's recently remastered and released 1983 album, The Final Cut. Derided upon its release as the band's self-indulgent and least accomplished work, it is undeniably songwriter Roger Waters' creation--a stark, cerebral exploration of war and death. It is also the first Pink Floyd album since the 1973 breakout of Dark Side of the Moon that favors mood over melody, which can make it a drag of a listen if you're expecting the transporting lilt of the band's early blockbuster era.

That's not the case with Now Here, for it possesses a pointed tunefulness that nearly overcomes the ethereal atmosphere. The walls of sound are impressive, for sure, but songs like "Light's On" and the title track are most memorable because they simply stick. However, this is not to say the album is not derivative. As far as rhythm goes, "First Wave Intact" and "Sad and Lonely" are pure John Bonham tribal pomp, while the tight instrumental propulsion of the title track recalls the Strokes. Perhaps some critics have just credited the wrong inspiration. No matter--it got me listening, and with any luck, this will get you aboard as well.--Mike Prevatt