5 out of 5

Label: Taste

Produced by: Dave Sardy

Something almost inevitable happens when you listen to Serafin.  You will, perhaps, immediately brush it off as a grunge-rock imitator, nipping whiny vocals and bridges from the likes of those bands you once cared about and now are maybe only reminiscent toward while you diddle yourself listening to something on NPR.  You will note the heavy production and amped up screams that ride the coattails of the then (2003) sneery punkish resurgence (the Vines) going on in the Q Magazine scene.  In other words, you’ll probably set the group aside as something rather generic.

So let’s step ahead some years to the band’s followup to this disc, ‘To the Teeth.’  The album is stripped of these elements to a certain extent, letting the frenetic energy of Ben Fox Smith’s half-sensible lyrics hit atop waves of skittering drums and guitar lines.  But the disc is lacking something: Dave Sardy.

I like Serafin.  Smith’s words float on the side of dumb rhymes on occasion, but he’ll almost immediately back it up with such a darkly smart observation or line that you can forgive it as a kind of earnestness, and his off-pitch howl eventually works with the same appeal as Billy Corgan’s voice did / does once you accept it with the music.  And the group’s compositions are pretty spot-on, generally, swinging between instantly grabbing riffs and heavy, harsh choruses, successfully transitioning from song to song.  But the key is still Sardy.  And I so I can admit that I, too, would probably have overlooked the band if not for the producer’s name being on the disc, and furthermore, with the comparison to ‘To the Teeth,’ it’s apparent how much structure Sardy offered the band.  All of those grunge elements were undoubtedly encouraged by Dave, and for the best: the meatiness of the disc is what ends up making it so memorable and catchy and affecting.

Production considerations aside, ‘No Push Collide’ is still a notable rock disc.  Hold it side-by-side with similar bands and it earns its runtime where other discs run out of steam; every track on ‘Collide’ has a line or moment that can make you smile or tap your toe or rock out.  But it gets nudged into the stratosphere by being one of Sardy’s most satisfying accomplishments, properly balancing his rough and balanced sound with just enough dash of keys or tricks to keep the listen a constantly rewarding experience, while absolutely still letting the skills the band brought to the table shine.