Pilot Speed – Wooden Bones Review
It’s probably been five years (or more) in between Pilot Speed/Pilate records after skipping, Sell Control For Life’s Speed/Into The West. Their debut album, Caught by the Window was an excellent album from top to bottom, channelling a dark and deep emotion. It truly was a depressing and gloomy album but one that was well done.
One of the strong points for Pilot Speed was Todd Clark’s vocals. Channeling (need clarification on this word, getting contradictory spell checks) Thom Yorek of Radiohead, he was a bright spot to the band’s light sound. Bands like Keane and Snow Patrol as much as people hate them, have strong lead singers. The same could be said for Todd Clark though it seems a little downplayed on Wooden Bones.
The band attempts a more complete sound, with the band contributing much more to music. They do a fairly do a decent job with Todd Clark’s vocals. It seems though; it’s lost a bit of that edge of Clark’s magnificent vocals by adding more on the musical side.
Still, the music is still pretty good. While I’m not amazed by it there are some moments on this album where I feel like this album can be easily good. Instead, it’s more of a satisfactory-above average album. There’s nothing wrong with that at the end of the day.
I’m not overly impressed by the beginning or end of the album but quite impressed by the core of the album. My two favourite tracks on the record are Ain’t No Life and Up On The Bridge. I think there are some very promising songs but may end up being a tweener type of band, not catchy enough to be radio-friendly (though Put The Phone down is on rotation with the Edge) or exploratory enough to make a dent on the critical level (alas a lukewarm Allmusic guide review).
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
All in all. I dig the album, perhaps not enough to be singing high praises. It does satisfy me on a certain level. Perhaps I won’t be wanting to listen to this album two months down the road but at least I’ll remember that it was decent enough. Definitely nothing I hated though.
Put The Phone Down by Pilot Speed
Ain’t No Life by Pilot Speed
Tags: album
I hadn’t even realized Pilot Speed and Pilate were the same band until this post. Wonder why they decided to have a name change.