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Artist: Destroy Nate Allen
Albums: Perfect Recipe for a Smile & Don’t Let This Smile Fool You
Label: None
Release Date: 2009
Reviewer: Eric Pettersson
Tracklisting:
- Anchors Away
- Turns Out You’re Perfect for Me
- Recipe
- Loving You
- White Flag
- His Lips Are Sealed Hallelujah
- Despite It All
- Steady
- I Am Alive
- Smile
- Phil Collins
- Don’t Let This Smile Fool You
- 35, 35, 35
- Guitar Strings
- Glow in the Dark
- How to Make a Girl Cry
- Grandpa
- Ain’t Gonna Rain No More
- Suffer
- Pardon Song
Whew! That’s a lot of tracks. But, it’s because this is actually two albums on one disc. The first ten tracks are Perfect Recipe for a Smile, a new LP from Destroy Nate Allen, which has recently become a duo by the inclusion of Nate’s wife Tessa. The latter ten tracks are then a solo album from Nate Allen called Don’t Let This Smile Fool You. Nate says he wrote the second album in a few days, and it shows. These songs are short and silly, most of them romantic love songs that would be great if he sang them to his wife at home, but they have no place in a professional music setting. Since I am so disappointed by the quality of these songs and their lack of critical substance, my review will focus entirely on Perfect Recipe for a Smile. The disc is priced like a single album, so we can treat Don’t Let This Smile Fool You like added bonus material at the end of the real album and still have a fair evaluation.
The last I heard Destroy Nate Allen, it was 2006’s Awake O’ Sleeper. In my review of that album, I recommended Nate focus on the softer songs that seemed to have a lot of potential. At the same time, a certain Christian music mag told him he should focus on the fun and fast songs and get rid of the others. Apparently Nate chose to follow their advice over mine, with mixed results.
Perfect Recipe for a Smile captures a sound that is clearly meant for a fun and interactive live show. Translated to the studio, some songs like “Recipe” lose their fun and feel awkward, but others like “Loving You” are filled with great folk-punk energy and strong back-and-forth between the two singers. “White Flag” is somewhat slower, but the rawness is in full force. Nate’s voice is scratchy and end-of-the-show rough, like someone switched out his water bottle with straight whiskey. This works so well to his advantage that I wish it would have happened on more tracks. It really brings out the punk roots of this acoustic act.
The trend here is that the edgier punk-influenced songs have a rawness and energy not usually found in an acoustic act these days, and it brings the obvious comparison to Violent Femmes. However, while some may prefer clean love songs for the wife to catchy tunes about drugs and masturbation, listening to this album only makes me want to take it right back out and jam to “Blister in the Sun” instead. Destroy Nate Allen gets points for reminding me of a sweet band, but they lose those points for not offering anything of competitive value.
This is not to say that Destroy Nate Allen has no value. There’s good potential here, but on Perfect Recipe for a Smile, I feel like I’m listening to someone trying to recreate a live show in the studio. It reflects what must be a fun and enjoyable concert, but it fails as a recorded album. Most of the time, this could have been fixed with the simple addition of drums and maybe a bass instead of just the two voice and acoustic guitars. Fleshing out the songs with more instruments is definitely the way to go on future albums for Destroy Nate Allen. And while fun songs are seemingly a staple of their live show, they need to find a new way to work them on the record. Songs like “Turns Out You’re Perfect for Me” and “Steady” are so performance driven that they should probably only be played live. This is where Nate could return to those slower and softer songs I liked on Awake O’ Sleeper to flesh out the disc with more quality material.
Overall: Destroy Nate Allen frustrates me. They show a ton of potential on this album, but it is only fully realized on “Loving You” and “White Flag.” Yet when they hit it on these tracks, their acoustic sound rocks as hard as any punk band. In the future they should save the interactive songs for the live show and spend more recording time on the thoughtful and brooding jams.
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| 09/03/2010 05:39 am | Hot! Downloads
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tessa is awesome, I know her from when I did shows back in the day. I really like this band, they are fun. please support this band!
This seems like an extremely critical review for a free album! you can go to http://www.destroynateallen.com/ and download all of their stuff for free! They are extremely nice, fun loving, sing a-long, acoustic punk. they aren’t the next top 40 christian pop punk cookie cutter band and they aren’t trying to be. this album definitely deserves to get like 7 skulls out of 10, not the 5 it received, just my opinion.
I respect your opinion, but do allow me to share mine. I agree with Kurtis Wilson, this review is very critical for a free album. Also, I’m pretty sure they wanted the album to sound raw, otherwise they would have added to it. Have you seen them live? If not, I suggest you do so. They put on a VERY good show, & you can tell how much they love doing what they do. I have to say, they are two of the most free-spirited people I’ve ever met, not to mention wonderful.
They toured for a year straight, giving out CDs [costing them money out of THEIR OWN pockets] & spreading something different that makes people smile & forget about the things in life that are dragging them down.
I certainly believe you’ve underestimated them & their musical talent, & honestly, I think they deserve AT LEAST a 7. I really hope your review doesn’t scare people away from something as wonderful as this album.
Your review came off as cocky & rude. Maybe you didn’t intend for it to, but it did, so please, for the sake of yourself, get rid of the music guru attitude as it isn’t very becoming to people. You simply sound like your opinion of music is above all.
Chances are you don’t care about what I have to say & that is your free right, but I had to comment. They gave me a free CD & a wonderful night when I was broke & feeling down. I feel it’s the least I can do for them in return…
the fact that you’re sitting here, picking apart someones art to this point is sad. music is to be ejoyed, not criticized. thats how nate and tessa write and record their music. they sing what they feel the way they feel it, not the way someone like you thinks they should. if they were trying to please EVERYONE they would have sold-old as a band a long time ago. if thet’s not good enough for you then you must not know the true meaning of what it is to be a musician.
but they make me so happy…
Clearly this is one of the great Christian albums of all time. I dont expect many reviewrs to ‘get it’, as you really have to know where they are coming from as artists to appreciate this fully. Those of us with our roots in anarcho/folk punk recognise its worth and stand by it fiercly. This, along with the mighty ‘Agents of Future’ is my favourate album of 2009. Win.
Album reviews aren’t to review Nate and Tessa as people. They’re to review the album, it’s musical technicality, and craftsmanship. I’m sure Nate and Tessa are fantastic people who put a lot of heart into what they do.
you did a good job reviewing the album.
honestly, im not a fan of this style. however, they are good at what they do. they are looking for a raw, honest sound – not a polished, mainstream sound. its one of those ‘you like it or hate it’ records depending on where you are coming from.
Rebecca, and anyone interested,
You are entirely right that this is the type of record one would either love or hate. However, the reason that this review was garbage had little to do with whether or not this album would be well received. It had entirely more to do with the fact that there is misinformation contained within the review.
First off, the reviewer tells us that the second half of the album is full of short, silly songs. When in fact the entire album, all 20 songs are short. Only 2 songs clock in over 3 min. He goes on to say that MOST of them are romantic love songs. That is also incorrect. The truth is that out of 10 songs only 4 are love songs. Last time I checked less then half is not most! 35, 35, 35, the Pardon Song, Suffer, Don’t let this smile fool you, Grandpa, and Ain’t Gonna Rain No More, are 6 of 10 songs that are not love songs. 2 of them are about his grandpa which is cool as Nate is playing his Grandfathers banjo on these songs.
This is just my opinion, but the best 2 songs of all 20 are the last 2. Suffer & the Pardon Song. The reviewer said these 10 songs lacked critical substance? Wrong again, Lyrically these last 2 songs on the disc are moving and stylistically the most Punk on the entire double disc. Here is a taste of the so-called lack of critical substance,
“Well one day were all gonna die and I’m hoping that the angels fly
When the bombs they drop on us from the sky
Well it probably will not be Iraqi’s but someone we sold bomb to
oh look at the troubles we’ve gotten ourselves into
Because I need to suffer the consequences
and you need to suffer the consequences
And we’ll all suffer for not loving someone”
Thirdly, the reviewer claims that the song, Turns Out You’re Perfect for Me should only be preformed live. When the truth is that as far as an acoustic guitar behind simple vocals are concerned, this is the tightest the guitar sounds on this album. The song is so catchy and rhythmic it would be the next radio single if there was such a thing for Destroy Nate Allen.
It is not whether people like this album or not that concerns me. What concerns me is that people read reviews to discover and some times even decide whether or not to listen to a certain band, and while a critic may not enjoy what an artist decided to do while making their art is irregardless. What matters is facts. You can state your opinion when writing a review but you should never foolishly say untrue statements based on those opinions. That’s just my opinion.
Kurtis, thanks for the corrections. It seems I made a few too many generalizations and got my facts wrong. I appreciate the simple list of what I missed.
I’m especially interested in that “Suffer” part. The truth is, I actually really liked that song, especially from a lyrical standpoint, but I just plain forgot about it when I wrote my review because it got lost in the mix with songs like “How to Make a Girl Cry” that I really just couldn’t stand listening to. But “Suffer” deserves some recognition, and while it is belated, I will say now that that is a song worth hearing.
PS. I may have also been a little harsh on “Turns Out You’re Perfect for Me.” That song actually fits, I just didn’t connect with it personally. But you’re right, it’s catchy and it’s a good tune if you like fun songs. The real problem there was “Recipe,” which sounded like a children’s camp song. Fun is good sometimes, but that was just too silly and, well, campy. But yeah dude, thanks for keeping the facts straight about the other stuff. I’ll try to be more careful in the future.
Hey Eric, No problem. Believe it or not I had never…ever…even heard of Destroy Nate Allen before your review! Your slight comparison to the Violent Femmes style is what got me to check them out. The Violent Femmes have always been one of my top 3 favorite secular artist! And your right as far as that comparison goes, also, I think that the Violent Femmes win out with a huge margin over Destroy Nate Allen. One more thing, as far as “Recipe” goes, again I agree with you 100% not a good record song at all!! Anyway Thanks for your words and I apologize that I sounded so harsh reviewing your review…Keep doing what you do! Much Love!
i don’t believe whether or not an album is free should be taken into consideration when reviewing a band. what does it matter if it’s free or not?