Adhering to the age-old Brit-rock playbook that dictates your second album must be tailored to appeal to American audiences,
the Subways recorded their second album
All or Nothing in Los Angeles under the direction of producer
Butch Vig, the man who helmed such '90s landmarks as
Nirvana's
Nevermind,
L7's
Bricks Are Heavy, and
Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream before forming
Garbage.
Vig is an ideal choice for a trio so steeped in '90s alt-rock that they can't help but swipe titles from alt-rock hits of yesteryear: the album opens with "Girls & Boys" (just like
Blur's 1994 hit), a couple of tracks later they get to "Alright" (just like
Supergrass' 1995 single), and then get to "Turnaround" (
Devo via
Nirvana); they even unwittingly pay homage to the grunge-era Brad Pitt film with "Kalifornia." All this is appropriate, as
Vig helps turn
All or Nothing into a perfectly fine post-grunge album that could have easily come out in 1998 as 2008. The Subways' youthful exuberance has been harnessed, streamlined, and scrubbed, so there's not much kinetic energy but a whole lot of professional punch, which not only makes them sound just a little bit older than their years, but also has the effect of blunting whatever sorrow guitarist/vocalist
Billy Lunn has channeled into his songs about breaking up with bassist
Charlotte Cooper. A modern-day
Rumours or
Shoot Out the Lights,
All or Nothing isn't, largely due to the glossy veneer
Vig puts on the band -- something that is appealing on the surface, especially when
the Subways have a good punk-pop song like "Kalifornia" or "Shake! Shake!" (or the very British Brit-pop of "Move to Newlyn"), but has the end effect of dulling both the emotional pull of
Lunn's tunes and
the Subways impact as a band. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine