Don't Fuck With Our Dreams announced a new level of songwriting for The Smith Street Band, and one I was really impressed by. Sunshine & Technology was a fun record, but relatively simple; on Don't Fuck With Our Dreams they wrote their first song that had different parts and movements and things more complex than just verse-chorus-verse. Throw Me in the River was, for me, something of a let down, as it had none of this new-found greatness. I went into More Scared of You Than You Are of Me with some hesitation, only be blown away - this album has that next-level songwriting overflowing at every turn, so much so it was my album of the year in 2017.
I'm going to struggle to describe this album appropriately, because I'm just not that great with words, and I throw the words "excellent" and "brilliant" around on here so much that they lose meaning. But how about this: in the summer of 2017 I'd had a really shitty day at work (side note: I've not had a single one of those since I changed job - if only I'd realised that shitty days weren't compulsory sooner) and I was sat on the train coming back from London. The sun was still high in the sky and it was a really nice evening (or would have been without a long commute). I wanted to put the day behind me, and decided to put this album on my iPod and crank it up loud. Instantly I was in a happy place and smiling to myself. Within minutes I'd forgotten why I was angry. Any album that can change your mood for the better so quickly is truly remarkable.
There's barely a let up in the energy here, which is part of the charm, yet somehow they manage to still vary between "lots of energy" and "ridiculous huge sing-along moment energy" regularly and perfectly. Every song has at least one moment that I love and would be the highlight of any other album. Death to the Lads would have made the album incredible alone. Run Into the World starts off like the first dud on the album (the chorus is amazingly flat, but maybe that's just in relation to the soaring chorus (and verses) elsewhere), but then some female vocals take over before being layered against Will's building to a huge crescendo, proving that maybe it wasn't a terrible chorus. I even put that song on my end-of-year mixtape. Shine is another great example of a song a million times bigger than their first couple of albums (as are Forrest, Birthdays and Suffer). The strange end to Laughing (Or Pretending to Laugh) is literally the only bad moment on the whole record and, after the 45-minutes that came before, I'll let slide.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Specialist Subject Record subscription
When: 06/04/17
Colour: Pink with blue splatter
Etching: Side A: "More scared of you" Side B: "Than you are of me"
mp3s: Download code
