New Collisions

The Optimist (self-released)

By Megan Martin
Published: October 15th, 2010 | 1:00pm

Produced by Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie (The Sounds, Radiohead, the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr.), New Collisions first full-length The Optimist melds the sounds of those bands with a fresh, biting spin on femme-fatale lyricism and power pop-punk instrumentation. Strong moments include the opener “Dying Alone” and “In a Shadow,” a particularly B-52s-ish number. Despite what people may think of this first release, the Boston-based band is finding abrupt success for such a brand-spanking new group (they’ve only been together about a year). Makes sense, though, considering they were discovered by the Cars’ Greg Hawkes and have toured with legends like, yes, the B-52s and Blondie, which attributes to the strong presence of ‘80s and early ‘90s post-punk and new wave found throughout The Optimist.

The pitfalls to what could be a very strong album, though, are its lack of resonance—the songs just don’t stick. While the overall concept is strong—brooding female singer Sarah Guild and the aforementioned influential sounds that back her—it’s a little too easily forgotten. It’s not bad by any means, but hopefully next time, New Collisions will push themselves a little more to create some truly memorable tunes.

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