'90s equivalent of a spotty '60s garage album....
Crass Gnat | 01/30/2005
(3 out of 5 stars)
"There are precisely THREE great songs on this album - Staring at the Sun (a minor national radio hit), Picture Made Past, and Papaya Clearance Sale. The rest of the album ranges from pretty good to terrible, though the music isn't always to blame for the latter; some of the tracks are poorly recorded and/or feature too much guitar noise (be it amp hiss or fatigue-inducing distortion). Of course, Maquee at its best still sounds stuck in the mid-'90s, when grunge was coming out of vogue musically and commercially. Unfortunately, Smile were simultaneously too quirky and too mediocre to transcend their status as flavor of the month."