Pinback - Blue Screen Life
(Ace Fu)
This is Pinback's second album. It's probably important to mention that I
hold the first album to
be among the best pop records ever recorded. They followed it up with an
EP, which proved
they could hold their ground and write more great pop songs without simply
rewriting the first
album. Blue Screen Life shows Rob Crow (Heavy Vegetable, Physics,
Thingy,
Opitganally Yours) and Zach Smith (Three Mile Pilot) coming into their own
with the ideas put
down on the Some Voices EP.
The album sounds like the EP, but feels like the debut. Songs are a little
strange, parts a little off
kilter and odd, but the tone is an even keel: heartbreakingly beautiful and
downbeat. "Offline
PK" starts the album with herky jerky rhythms, which give way to a steady,
ascending line.
"Your Sickness" culminates into some of Pinback's best vocal interplay.
Some of what makes
Pinback's vocals so great is the ability of Rob (and now it seems, Zach) to
make mundane lyrics
so affecting. The lyrics for the end of "Your Sickness" include 'see you
later.' This is a line that would ruin
any other song (that Rob Crow didn't write/sing). Instead, it
makes these sad,
pretty melodies charming and inviting. That's probably why Rob's
songwriting seems so brilliant
to me. He writes great parts, but his lyrics make you feel like you're his
friend because he's
comfortable saying stupid things and talking about whatever comes to mind.
It's nice to have a band you love release a second, consistently brilliant
(and different) album.
But, since it's Rob Crow, you'd think I'd be used to it by now:
Frisbie, the second Physics
album, To The Innocent, and Pinback's debut are all perfect albums.
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