Sisely replaces Carah and I'm still in love.

There's a loooot of mud slinging going on in the musical community about Shiny Toy Guns' new album.

First and foremost, they've kicked out the lead female vocalist on their debut album, Carah Faye and replaced her with Sisely Treasure. Their latest album Season of Poison features a bolder, more guitar lead sound and their new female vocalist has stepped up with a more adventurous female vocal style. Don't get me wrong, I greatly admired Carah's siren-song vocals on We Are Pilots, but Sisely's vocals on this album express a more emotionally broad scale. Whether it be angrily proclaiming her disdain for a physically abusive father in When Will This Storm Begin to expressing insane delight in cornering a prospect in Ricochet! to mournful optimism in Frozen Oceans (which almost sounds as if it were a style homage to the title track on their first album We Are Pilots), you can tell that Sisely really feels what she's singing.

No one is exactly certain why it is that The Shinys kicked Carah out, but from my experience from their shows with her as the singer, I believe it might have something to do with a drinking problem. When I was at their show last September in Seattle at Endfest, she clearly wasn't even into her music at all until about halfway through the show, when she all of a sudden had more pep and wasn't looking at her feet anymore. It would also seem they suffered artistic differences, Carah being unable to cope with a loss of synthesizer, as well as Carah's pre-occupation with her then fiancee (now husband).

Despite all of this drama, both Shiny Toy Guns and Carah Faye are doing well. Shiny Toy Guns' new album Season of Poison drops in 2 days, but you can hear it now on their MySpace profile at http://myspace.com/shinytoyguns, and I definitely encourage it. Carah Faye has started a new band called Versant, which is sticking to her preferred style of electro-synth-indie as well as enjoying her marriage in Sweden.

I encourage that you, instead of listening to the first 5 seconds of Ricochet! and instantly trashing on it after hearing the non-Carah-Faye singer, to give the new album a more open-minded listen. I think you'll notice that underneath all the new guitar and behind the new lead singer, what you're listening to really is still Shiny Toy Guns. However, if you prefer listening only any band's "old stuff" (IE: The first song of their's you heard on the radio off of their first major label album), I suggest you go listen to The Used's self titled album while slitting your wrists in a corner, mourning the death of "good music".