PINBACK

Someone passed a law a while back that every band must have a side project -- or two -- instead of living and dying within their own confines. So it is that this duo shares members with the estimable Three Mile Pilot. For once, however, there's ample inspiration to go around, as this LP is a fine little feather in the caps of Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow. The album is a bit of a one-trick-pony, with little to distinguish texturally between one song and the next, but what a nice little trick it is. Tempos are slow while not succumbing to heaving slowcore, atmospheres are gentle without being glib, the sound is direct but not blunt. As guitars pick deliberately like roosters picking up seed, and drums and bass pitter-patter, the vocals come in with two-part harmonies and double-tracked melodies that winnow along with the leisurely air. An unobtrusive beauty like fall foliage in New England is created, with the hint of winter around the corner in the occasional nippy organ or more knelling rhythm ("Crutch"). Good. ~ Jack Rabid