Review Summary: But if my eyes were on my back, I know what I’d be lookin’ at
If you’d like to make a case for Blind Pilot as one of the most under-appreciated acts in the early 21st Century indie folk boom, debut LP
3 Rounds and a Sound deserves to occupy the central place in your argument. Released back in 2008, it’s an absolutely gorgeous record - lyrically strong, drenched in easy-going melodicism, often absurdly catchy, and endlessly inviting all-around. There’s something here for every devotee of the genre - sorrowful laments of love that might’ve been (“Oviedo”), Shins-esque slices of folk-ified pop genius (“One Red Thread”), the most earworm-y depiction of the apocalypse this side of The Decemberists’ “Calamity Song” (“The Bitter End”), and an essential movie soundtrack romantic number (the closing title track), among plenty of other worthy entries. In the end, it’s probably the fact that
3 Rounds and a Sound simply perfects the standard paradigm of indie folk rather than transcending it which explains why it’s not a universally revered classic of the canon, and why Blind Pilot overall maintains a curiously low profile - the record’s vaguely twee presentation and its focus on earnestly reminiscent tales of heartbreak mark it as a slightly generic product of its time and place (hipster central, AKA late 2000s Oregon) - but that doesn’t prevent it from being oh so good. Like a worn and threadbare, but immensely cozy, sweater, Blind Pilot’s first attempt is far from flashy, but it remains both comfortable and comforting, the kind of thing which doesn’t ever go out of style.
