When I reviewed the first Smashing Times album I said "Your enjoyment of the new album from The Smashing Times depends on how much you love Television Personalities." I think in 2024, with Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys, your enjoyment of this Smashing Times album depends less on how much you adore Dan Treacy, and far more on how much you tolerate affectation. Which is a harsh way of saying that The Smashing Times feels like a put-on persona at times.
All that out of the way, let's tackle a big question: How are the tunes? There's a lot of invention here, and that goes a long way. The title cut, for example, glides on the back of a really cool, infectious riff, while the lyrical "A Taste of Honey" recalls Big Beat era bands from the UK (even if the British accents this time around are not real ones). But with songs named "Tarts and Vicars" and "Can I Have Some Tea", the joke wears as thin as if it was an English musician showing up in NYC wearing cowboy boots and hat and yelling "Hi y'all!"
That gets at the central issue I have with Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys: the talent behind the scenes is considerable -- Paul Krolian, for one, was in the fine Expert Alerations and is backing up Linda Smith these days; and Blake Douglas was in Corduroy with Paul, and also backs up Linda, for another -- but there's so much energy being spent on the affectations of a faux Englishness that a listener is, if not annoyed, at least distracted from the sharp melodies and clever hooks here. Are The Smashing Times trying to serve up good music, or is the music secondary to the perfection of a vibe? It's all a bit gimmicky, frankly.
And that's a shame to report, really, as some of the hooks here are undeniably strong, giving portions of this Baltimore-sourced record a mood not unlike some of the better releases from The Apples in Stereo and The Olivia Tremor Control (to use two non-Brit points of reference for a change). "Wednesday, on a Hummingbird's Wing" has the marks of a classic jangle-pop number in it, as does the brusque "I Paint the Pictures", a sharp highlight here. But it's too much work finding those gems when the rest of the record is awash with affected accents and the trappings of other bands. No one is going to listen to Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys and applaud The Smashing Times for how expertly they've aped Television Personalities; they're likely instead to listen to this once, then run and grab a TVP album off the shelf and play that next, you know? I really wish the considerable talents of those behind this record had spent as much time on the music as they did on the play-acting accents, and the layering of musical cues from other bands.
Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys by The Smashing Times is out via Perennial Death this week.