Video: Echosmith, ‘Diamonds’

Kevin Bronson on January 10th, 2020

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Echosmith burst out of Chino in 2013, the latest sibling “Cool Kids” to achieve a radio-friendly indie-pop sound as fresh as their teenaged Southern California faces. A sibling quartet at the start, their debut album “Talking Dreams,” eventually a gold record, was truly a family affair, as the tunes were co-penned by their father, songwriter-producer Jeffery David.

It took six-plus years (with a bunch of singles and EPs along the way), but today brought the trio’s second full-length, “Lonely Generation.” The kids — Sydney, Noah and Graham Sierota — are all in their 20s now, and Sydney, 22, is married, so the new album presents itself as a coming-of-age album, although it’s not the stuff of college theses. In fact, if the late John Hughes were making movies, he’d probably pass on “Lonely Generation” as a little too featherweight for his soundtracks.

Still, Echosmith is sanguine and pristine-sounding as Sydney’s vocals take flight on the airy “Diamonds” (“When are we gonna learn / That we can change the world?” is its well-intentioned chorus). The title track laments belonging to a generation that’s a “pixelated version of ourselves” while doing little to sharpen the image. The usual pop themes sound straight from the heart, though, especially “Scared to Be Alone” and the piano ballad “Everyone Cries.”

Two of their light-hearted videos for the singles on the album have a Old West theme. “Diamonds,” released today, features a playful high-stakes poker game and seems as if were made in the same shoot with last October’s thoroughly confusing “Lonely Generation.” Meanwhile, “Shut Up and Kiss Me” presses all the cute buttons, as Sydney tries to attract the attention of Cameron Quiseng, whom she married last year.

Fans who made it through middle and high school with “Cool Kids” will probably feel less lonely hearing this album, and their kid brothers and sisters will chew it up like bubblegum.

||| Watch: The videos for “Diamonds” and “Shut Up and Kiss Me”