Twenty | One | Pilots fly high with genre-defying debut Vessel
Like a cocaine-fueled amalgamation of the Hoosiers and Linkin Park, with hints of Panic! At The Disco thrown in for good measure, Columbus (Ohio)’s Twenty | One | Pilots own flat-out the most infectious pop sound of the new year, and they’re ready to take your brain hostage at the slightest provocation. “”Holding On To You,” the album’s lead-off single, makes the mission clear from the start — they’re the kaleidoscope through which we should be viewing our music from here on, and the only rule is there are no rules.
Freewheeling between eighties-inspired glam-pop backdrops, hip-hop fueled fire-breathing and pop-punk inspired radio hooks from the Gods, this is music for those who want their music to continually twist the knife. “Migraine” opens with a burst of Imogen Heap-esque vocorder bliss, then bursts back and forth from a singable chorus to hip-hop verses like a feast for that space between your ears celebrating a tidal wave of creativity with hooks to spare. “Car Radio,” meanwhile, opens with a quiet instrumental interlude which is overlaid by a spoken-word burst of poetry bemoaning a life without music — the suffering of one who had his car radio stolen. “Sometimes quiet is violent,” he sings, before hinting that a life without music could be so terrifying death might actually be better than enduring the silence.
But the album’s biggest success is that lead single, and “Holding On To You” deserves to be the vehicle which introduces fans to this band certain to become their new favorite. The beginning is perfectly executed Wombats-inspired pop, building to rapped crescendos on the verses and a pop chorus Fall Out Boy would have killed for in their heyday. But it’s the breakdown three minutes in which burns the place down with a rapid-fire singalong sure to stick to your brain like glue:
Lean with it, rock with it
When we gonna stop with it?
Lyrics that mean nothing
We were gifted with thought
Is it time to move our feet
To an introspective beat
It ain’t the speakers that bump hard
It’s our hearts that make the beat
Doing what Alt-J did for fans of art rock last year, these two Midwestern purveyors of “schizoid pop” make mini-symphonies of genre blasting experimentation, making it fun to be a fan of pop music again. Come out of the closet, friends — if proof was needed, this is it, that there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure. When you’re flying with Twenty | One | Pilots, it’s all good!
ALBUM REVIEW: Blood Red Shoes – “Fire Like This”
Year of the Album — #003
Blood Red Shoes – “Fire Like This”
V2 Records (2009)
———————————————————————————————————–
Similar Albums: The Hoosiers – “Trick To Life” (RCA, 2007)
The Attorneys – “Stereocracy” (Independent, 2007)
Switches – “Lay Down The Law” (Interscope, 2008)
———————————————————————————————————-
I downloaded a copy of Blood Red Shoes’ sophomore album a few months ago after reading some really good reviews at Drowned In Sound and Pitchfork. Having taken the chance to give the album a listen after it spent time hiding on my hard-drive, I can understand where those publications were coming from in praising this effort. The music’s catchy, upbeat and full of crushing hooks, pounding percussion and all the British-inspired alterna-rock you could want. The music immediately sounds familiar, which helps it assert itself quickly and assuredly.
Problem is, the music sounds familiar because there’s really nothing new here at all that hasn’t been accomplished better on albums from any number of bands with similar alternative influences. While “Don’t Ask” and “Heartsink” have the sound of potential American singles, the album had to wait more than a year after its British release to even be heard here. I suspect it’s because there’s nothing here to push to radio that hasn’t sounded better from Switches (“Message From Yuz”) or the Hoosiers (“Worried About Ray,” “Goodbye Mr. A”). Even Attorneys’ “Talk About It,” which almost nobody heard, has more punch than most of this album after you’ve repeated it a few times. It all culminates in the unbearably long “Colours Fade,” which goes on and on (more than seven minutes) while not providing enough hook for more than two or three).
That said, Fire Like This is at least a worthy diversion in a slow release period. The band hints at bigger and better things they could come out with if they’d expand beyond their seemingly limited influences to produce something that sounds purely like Blood Red Shoes rather than a mere retread. “It’s Getting Boring By The Sea” got them some notice on the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World soundtrack, at least pushed their sonic envelope somewhat, but nothing on Fire Like This makes me think the band’s next album’s going to get much of a shot here in the States, despite what Pitchfork might say.
