Synic's Spotlight: Smell the Magic - L7

Hey guys. When I first started this blog, I went into it with the intention of doing one post a week, every week, where I simply took a new record that I got from a band I liked and just wrote my initial thoughts on it. Well as you may have noticed for yourselves, there is a real shortage of new records coming out every week. That, and I started doing 2 or 3 posts a week so I very quickly ran out of new records to talk about. Going forward, I will still continue to discuss new records as I get them, and of course I will continue doing reviews by request (see my reviews for Sugar Ray and Vibraveil in the archives.) However, I also decided it was time to introduce a new concept for the blog. I'd like to give a special shoutout to our friends at The Bookshelf for inspiring this new concept. Thanks, Kim! Synic loves you.

So allow me to introduce Synic's Spotlight. Synic's Spotlight will be very similar in format to my standard record reviews, yet now I am giving myself the freedom to go back in time, and review any record I want, from any band, from any genre, any year. Maybe it'll be a personal favorite album of mine that I've listened to countless times, maybe it'll be something from the 90s that I just heard for the first time this week. Well that just happens to be the case for this first edition of Synic's Spotlight. I will still give my personal favorite and least favorite tracks as I normally do, however I will skip giving them a numerical rating.

For the Spotlight's grand debut, I'll be taking a look at Smell the Magic, the 1990 studio effort by all-girl punk rock band L7. I've known of the existence of L7 for quite some time, actually, as they are produced by Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna on Blackheart Records. At least they were for a while, I don't know if they still are, I'm not super well-versed in their career and I don't do any research before writing this shit. That said, I never really cared enough to try listening to the group. It wasn't until I heard one of their songs used in a Hulu series I've been binging during quarantine that they really caught my attention. The song, "Shove," was instantly searched for on YouTube while the show sat paused in front of me. The song quickly went from discovery to obsession after that. I loved everything about it. The energy, the ensemble chant in the chorus, the angsty and powerful chorus, and the fact that the lead singer sounds almost like if Cartman from South Park got a sex change.

I needed more. So I went online and bought the record containing "Shove," which turned out to be called Smell the Magic, an album regarded by many fans as their best record to date. And let me tell you that it does not disappoint whatsoever. Maybe the only disappointing thing about it, is that after you hit play you only have about 30 minutes of blood-pumping material before the album ends. But that's just the way punk should be, right? Fast paced, crazy high energy, and over before you know it. Like sex on prom night.

After having listened to the album twice just today alone (I bought the record last night, mind you) I can say that my initial obsession, "Shove," holds up. It's the opening track on the record, and what a strong opener it is. But the following tracks do not let up either. The next track is just as good as it's predecessor. I really had to scrape the barrel to pick a least favorite on this one. It's just a damn fun record. For fans of punk, hard rock, or just anything hard and dirty that leaves a trail of destruction in your earholes, L7's Smell the Magic is a great place to look. But hell, it's been out since 1990 so if you like any of the things I mentioned earlier you probably already know this album. If that's the case, let me ask you: why the hell didn't you tell me about it?

Smell the Magic - L7

9 - 1 - 1990

1. Shove

2. Fast and Frightening

3. (Right On) Thru

4. Deathwish

5. 'Till the Wheels Fall Off

6. Broomstick

7. Packin' a Rod

8. Just Like Me

9. American Society

Favorite Track: Shove

Least Favorite Track: Broomstick