Caveman: Smash Album Review

By Shack Khoza
Music Journalist

“Sparkling Electronic Pop Music” is the perfect way to describe the album Smash by Caveman. This album is created for those who love to lay down in their bedroom and mindlessly withdraw from reality into their own fantasy world. One where they are not burdened by life on earth

Caveman is a male trio that originated from Brooklyn, New York led by Matthew Iwanusa with guitarist Jimmy Carbonetti and bass guitarist Jeff Berrall. After high school in 2010, the trio emerged from New York City and gathered audience attention by producing indie music and playing in several downtown nightclubs.

Years later, Caveman performed in three music festivals, including the Sasquatch! Music Festival in the state of Washington. After a huge success at all three performances, the trio are touring in northern states this fall from Ohio to Pennsylvania.

The best way to describe this album is Shoegaze. It’s a term to describe dream pop, or bedroom imagination because a lot of wonder is going through a person’s mind. There are so many words that describe Smash: relaxing, lulling, thoughtful, meditative, etc.

In many of these tracks, Caveman utilized memorable music moments in the bridge, development, or outro of the song. For example, the outro of “Work This Hard” features tons of ’80s electronic pianos that makes the ending sparkle. “Will It Take Me” features guitar distortions in the bridge. And lastly, “Awake For The Week” presents a melodious guitar solo accompanied by synth bass figures. 

The best (and longest) song in this album is “Don’t Call Me.” It has a repeated, twinkling, and arpeggiated melody that changes every chord progression as it continues throughout the entire song. The lyrics present a lot of resentment to a certain person who doesn’t call any more after tough situations. The song as a whole contains a lot of ’80s piano synth chords and echoes that creates an atmosphere of bitterness. Yet the song is in a major key, so tonally it sounds more lighthearted. The listener could assume the band performing has a grudge against a certain person, but at the same time seems lenient and mild-mannered.

Smash by Caveman is a stupendous album that features tons of great lyrics and piano instrumentation. Their utilization of synth piano chords and ’80s atmosphere makes the whole album feel like you’re stargazing in a huge void of space…even though you’re probably lying down in bed.