Labels: Temporary Residence
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Three Mile Pilot is one of those bands that the CZ forum is in awe of. Every year since they put up the website saying “new album coming soon”, said album has featured on “most anticipated record of 200x” lists. It got to the point where it was almost a joke. But 3MP would not take their site down. It was still coming. And I believed. I believed in 3MP. This would not be a cruel trick. This was merely the act of veteran band dudes, taking forever to make an LP that would blow everyones minds. Like the Wrens. And finally. Finally. Temporary Residence solved everything. 3MP would have an LP in 2010, and a seven to tide everyone over. We anticipated, we fretted, the 7″ dropped. And with a ridiculous amount of trepidation, I was to listen to it for the first time…
Planets opens and from those first, familiar notes you know that you’re not going to be disappointed. It gently lopes into earshot, before the equally familiar vocals ease out of the speakers. This is the perfect continuation from their classic “Another Desert, Another Sea”. It’s indie rock music but so vastly superior to any of the hipster nonsense hyped by the usual suspects. 3MP are devoid of pretension, and jam packed with mature song writing and subtle genius. Planets leans on the piano but it slots right in the middle of the mix, never out duelling the multiple vocals or the rolling rhythms. I am pretty sure I only vainly hoped that 3MP coming back with a song this good, and never truly expected them to pull it off. I was wrong. “Grey Clouds” backs it up, and is equally impressive, another song that rolls right out of the previous LP and lodges firmly into your conscious. The keyboards and spacey effects are slightly more prominent this time, on a tune that meanders, never getting over excited and easing you through it’s a duration. Special.
An added bonus is the perfect art, an image of three parka jacket clad fellows wandering off into the snow. That is exactly what 3MP sounds like.