Labels: Absolutely Kosher
Review by: Andy Malcolm
When someone tells you that an album has been wedged in their tape player for weeks and that they have been unable to shift it, then you take that as a positive thing. Well, in this case it is a negative. The cassette that I recorded this CD onto was jammed into my car tape deck. I managed to finally prise it out this evening. Having it stuck in there has led to me listening it perhaps a few more times than I would otherwise expect. And I still have come to the same conclusion. I don’t like it all that much.
Having heard one song on a split 7″, I was convinced this album would be great. But it’s almost like a different band. On Homemade Drugs, the Pileup are a slick, clean, downbeat alt rock band. This is the kind of thing I would have blithely labeled ‘whine rock’ back in the day. It’s very similar to Jimmy Eat World circa Clarity. All moody and sad indie wanderings, and musically it is highly competent. I like the slow paced guitars, it has a feel of bands like Sunny Day or Mineral, but the in your face alt-rock vocals on some of the tracks just ruin it for me. This is fresh for mainstream consumption and you better believe it. Sure there are a number of moments which I really enjoy, those are the ones when the vocals are under-stated and more in the background, it’s very pretty and all that. Unfortunately then he suddenly switches to Creed mode (or something) and gets all-American on you. Hohum.
So sadly, I can’t really recommend it. Stick a different singer on it, and I would probably really enjoy this as mentioned several times above. But as it is, this is the kind of thing that I have a mental block on – I prefer this type of music to be a little less straight and clean, it lacks what I listen for.
Overall, this is very much the sort of album I would envisage appealing to fans of Deep Elm records or bands like Waxwing or whatever. Just not to me. Too bad.