Overview:

Smile Case is primarily a one-man band from Canada. Ben Andress, the singer/guitarist/songwriter, owns his own record label called Blacktop Records and records lots of smaller Canadian bands. “Lose Our Heads” is his first studio album that he produced himself with the help of a few friends.

Let’s check this moose out, eh?

Review:

Lose Our Heads is full of songs that are bad on purpose, which isn’t always a bad thing, as it can provide nice comedic relief needed in today’s overly serious music industry. The only thing is, this album is bad at being bad, making it nothing more than a twelve track headache that is an absolute chore to listen to. Or maybe I just don’t get Canadian humor.

Singer/Guitarist/Songwriter Ben Andress continuously belts out loud whining screams and yelps that are supposed to pass for vocals while a seemingly continuous high-pitched synth sound plays in the background. It literally gives me a headache and makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Andress’ guitar work ranges from OK to absolutely terrible. During some songs I’m actually impressed that the same stoned kid barking out such ugly sounds is able to play the guitar so well, while other times it just sounds like he’s simply smacking a dead bird against guitar strings. There are also drums on a couple of tracks, which are also pretty horrible. Very simple beats are performed very poorly and with a tempo that is all over the place.

Now that we’ve gotten the bad out of the way, we can talk about the good. Like I already said, some of the guitar work is pretty alright. Other than that the only redeeming feature about this album is that a lot of the lyrics and concepts behind songs are admittedly hilarious at times, but Ben’s overly loud whining vocals are overdone, which makes it very hard to listen to.

It seems to me like this album was born because a funny kid sat down in front of a bunch of people and played some overly sarcastic and fairly amusing songs. I do the same thing all the time, so I can imagine his music to be enjoyable entertainment at a small venue or something like that, but it’s no good as a recorded listening experience.

Final Words:

This album is terrible. It’s bad and being purposefully bad, making it even worse than I can explain. Vocals are annoying, guitar work is mostly amateur, drums are exceptionally weak, and that damn high-pitched hissing synth noise really gives you a headache.

Pros

• Some songs are funny

Cons

• Literally everything else

Score: 3.0/10 (Terrible)

Listen to Smile Case for yourself on their MySpace page