Smirk is shooting for a summery, mid-paced rock’n’roll approach. This undercurrent is in the songs of, like, “Good Times Abound.” Unfortunately, there are two inserts in the record (one of them being a page-long Best Pals thank-you list) but there’s no lyrics to be found anywhere. This either means the bands figure they’re decipherable, hence rendering a lyric sheet moot, or the lyrics aren’t worth reading. Either way, the Best Pals vocalist drives the need for a lyric sheet home since he literally sounds like he just got his wisdom teeth pulled and his mouth is still packed with gauze. The only thing you can make out is the chorus: “We like snacks. I’m having a snack attack.” I’m not sure, but I’d assume Mike Millett, Broken Rekids honcho, is in one of these bands. So, kiddies, what happens when well-respected record label guys are in short-lived bands that probably played a few house parties and recorded a few songs? Said record label guys have the means and inspiration to put out records like this, records which maybe fifty kids in the Bay Area will be into because they were at the shows. Records which, meanwhile, the rest of us flip past in our record boxes, abjectly trying to remember what it even sounds like.
–keith (Broken Rekids)