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Pinback, "Summer In Abaddon"
After tooling around with their sound on recent releases in search ofthemselves, Pinback have finally crafted what may be the best slice ofindie pop ever created. They've certainly always had the elementsright: hook-driven melodies, a playful sensibility, the right effectsfor the right moments, and a perfect mixture of instruments to choosefrom track after track.
Touch and Go
This album is the full realization of theconcept and it shows—as track after track is stronger than the last,building to a climax that settles in like a lamb more than a lion,drawing absolutely no complaints. Abaddon being the abyss or place ofthe dead, it's not expected that songs on the record will approach anyform of positivity, but they do on occasion, and either way it's adelight coming through the speakers even when they're at their mostmellow. The only thing that gets in the way is the sometimes obtusenature of the lyrics that reach for highfalutin concepts without anyreal merit. "I missed your monotube" and "Acute angles divide my paththat I had lost" may sound cool, but ultimately they are a little muchon the simple structures that surround them, and therefore they soundlike reaching. The repitition is also a bit trying, but forgiven if thesong actually hits the right marks eventually. "Syracuse," forinstance, repeats the same two lines until they're almost meaningless,but the driving energy of the song and the many layers that itrepresents make this null and void. This is almost math rock, as thereseems to be some greater formula at play that mere humans can'tcomprehend. The duo that make up Pinback on record shift styles andtempos with sly skill, all in the name of making pleasant sounds andhummable melodies, even if it sounds more complicated than it is.Whether there is more artifice than art is inconsequential.
Touch and Go
This album is the full realization of theconcept and it shows—as track after track is stronger than the last,building to a climax that settles in like a lamb more than a lion,drawing absolutely no complaints. Abaddon being the abyss or place ofthe dead, it's not expected that songs on the record will approach anyform of positivity, but they do on occasion, and either way it's adelight coming through the speakers even when they're at their mostmellow. The only thing that gets in the way is the sometimes obtusenature of the lyrics that reach for highfalutin concepts without anyreal merit. "I missed your monotube" and "Acute angles divide my paththat I had lost" may sound cool, but ultimately they are a little muchon the simple structures that surround them, and therefore they soundlike reaching. The repitition is also a bit trying, but forgiven if thesong actually hits the right marks eventually. "Syracuse," forinstance, repeats the same two lines until they're almost meaningless,but the driving energy of the song and the many layers that itrepresents make this null and void. This is almost math rock, as thereseems to be some greater formula at play that mere humans can'tcomprehend. The duo that make up Pinback on record shift styles andtempos with sly skill, all in the name of making pleasant sounds andhummable melodies, even if it sounds more complicated than it is.Whether there is more artifice than art is inconsequential.samples:
