Review Summary: If your music player is on shuffle, you may be surprised their stuff isn't Radiohead.
After I heard the single to this album I really was compelled to hear and buy the rest of the album. That was a good choice because I happened to buy a pretty good album. A lot of the album, and I mean a lot of it, sounds like “The Bends.” The singer seems to channel Thom Yorke and the rest of the band loves to use the acoustic sounds with slow and dim chords. Although I make it seem like a bad rip off of Radiohead, it is actually worth listening to, perhaps not buying but listening to is a way to put it.
The enjoyment level of this LP is really based upon if you like Radiohead and are willing to accept that there is a band that could emulate them so well that the album is better than a lot of “The Bends”. The band gets into faster tempos as they make it sound happier but that really doesn’t help the ambient sound that it really emits.
Pilate, pronounced like Pilot, pretty much the better side of Pilot Speed who are the same people but were probably more inclined to make money and boring music than vice versa. I would have loved to see this band take off to the sky to make amazing records that break new grounds and stray from the almost perfect emulation of the folks at Radiohead. They have great lyrics and amazing skill at conjuring up walls and walls of sounds as it almost spills out of your speakers.
The albums mentionable traits are that it is very ambient and relaxing throughout the whole of it, but can have more up beat songs that balance it out. The album is pretty much too soft and homogenous; it all sounds the same in the style they made it.
Verdict? Well I think that the album is above average but is a debut album that kind of never took the band anywhere. Sad but this band could have done so much better. If you want an album that is pretty soft and quite textured buy / get this album.
3.5 / 5
