10/25/2025
ON THIS DATE (36 YEARS AGO)
October 24, 1989 – The Smithereens: 11 is released.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 4.5/5
# Allmusic 3/5 stars
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11 is the third album by The Smithereens, released on October 24, 1989. It reached #41 on the Billboard 200 Top albums chart, and features three hit singles - "A Girl Like You" (Mainstream Rock Tracks #2, Modern Rock Tracks #3, Billboard Hot 100 #38), "Blues Before and After" (Mainstream Rock Tracks #7, Modern Rock Tracks #18, Billboard Hot 100 #94), and "Yesterday Girl" (Mainstream Rock Tracks #20, Modern Rock Tracks #16).
Smithereens 11 offers up what The Smithereens do better than anyone: a pure potent concoction of rock ‘n’ roll and pop. Singer/guitarist Pat DiNizio continues to pen the kind of tunes the New Trouser Press Record Guide has described as “impossibly winsome, memorable and rapturous without sacrificing any rock ‘n’ roll energy or guts.” And, if anything, the band has sharpened its ability to play shimmering, harmony-drenched melodic pop on Smithereens 11.
Smithereens 11 (the title a sly send-up of the Rat Pack film classic Oceans 11) sees DiNizio’s razor-sharp observations focusing on the more upbeat and romantic side of relationships, like “Kiss Your Tears Away,” a beautiful ballad, and “A Girl Like You,” the album’s hard-rocking first single. Other songs, like “Maria Elena” (inspired by Buddy Holly’s widow) and “William Wilson” (about a long overdue father and son reunion), travel uncharted territory.
The songs are musically diverse as well, as attested by tracks like the gorgeous, melancholic “Blue Period” (with Belinda Carlisle on backing vocals), the fuzzed-out “Blues Before and After,” and the sparkling “Cut Flowers,” the most recent recorded writing collaboration between DiNizio and guitarist Jim Babjak.
As announced by the pulverizing opening chords of “A Girl Like You,” the album’s kickoff track, the guitars punch, the drums snap and the vocals soar throughout the record…all of which makes sense in light of DiNizio’s description of the band: “AC/DC meets the Beatles — the crunch of those guitars and the melodic sense of the Beatles.”
With original bandmembers intact, they follow up last year’s Green Thoughts, the band’s debut for Enigma/Capitol Records. “We wanted to try to get a more in-your-face guitar sound,” explains bassist Mike Mesaros, “and we wanted everything crisper sounding, louder and more present. We’ve always been fairly heavy and raunchy live, and we wanted to capture a little more of that on record.”
The album’s harder sound is partially attributable to producer Ed Stasium, who’s worked on hard-rockin’ gems for, among dozens of others, the Ramones, Soul Asylum, Fetchin Bones, and most recently, Living Colour. “When I was 14,1 used to go to a guitar store in my home town and worship one particular guitar,” recalls DiNizio. “It was a blue Kalamazoo electric, a cheaper version of a Gibson. And the salesman/guitar teacher there always let me take it off the wall and play it, even though he knew damn well I couldn’t afford it. It turns out that the guy was Ed, and twenty years later here we are working together.”
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“We’d switched producers for this album, going from Don Dixon to Ed Stasium, who’d produced Living Colour and The Ramones. I’m not sure what we were looking for…maybe a heavier guitar sound, like in ‘Girl Like You.’ We were trying to preserve our integrity, yet find a home on radio.” -Pat DiNizio
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REVIEW
by Mark Deming, allmusic
The third full-length album from the Smithereens, 11 (a title which presumably referred to Spinal Tap's fabled guitar amps, which could be cranked past 10), was something of a letdown after the solid, tough-pop perfection of their first two albums, Especially for You and Green Thoughts. While their previous sets boasted strong material from front to back, 11 is dotted with filler. And while "A Girl Like You," "Blue Period," and "William Wilson" are all great songs, many of the others sound like by-the-numbers pop tunes cranked out to pad the set to full length. Producer Don Dixon made the most of the dark and mysterious undercurrents of Pat DiNizio's songs and Jim Babjak's guitar, here Ed Stasium gives the band a solid, professional sound that is sadly lacking in personality; there's nothing wrong with the way the album sounds, but there isn't anything terribly engaging about it, either. As a band, the Smithereens still sound rock solid here, but as an album it was sadly indicative of the creative ups and downs that would mark their recording career from this point forward.
TRACKS:
All songs written by Pat DiNizio, except where noted.
Side one
"A Girl Like You" – 4:42
"Blues Before and After" – 3:15
"Blue Period" – 2:57
"Baby Be Good" – 3:20
"Room Without a View" – 4:09
Side two
"Yesterday Girl" – 3:27
"Cut Flowers" (Jim Babjak, DiNizio) – 2:59
"William Wilson" – 3:33
"Maria Elena" – 2:48
"Kiss Your Tears Away" – 3:10
