We Are The Only Friends We Have

Piebald's best record, this is the album from them that people have been waiting for. They've finally realized how to turn Travis Shettel's high-pitched welps into a melodic weapon by writing songs that bring it out and embrace it, rather than bury it. While previous efforts always had a few fun tunes or a couple good choruses, this album is stacked from beginning to end with catchy, witty, and above all, fun songs. This could be the perfect antidote to all the mope rock out there. After re-forming and releasing a compilation of out of print singles, Barely Legal/All Ages in 2001, Piebald entered the Q Division Studios in Boston, MA, with Paul Q. Kolderie to record their first full-length album in three years. The results are surprisingly good. The album opens with "The King of the Road," an homage to their van and a chance to update everyone on where Piebald's been recently. The single, "Just a Simple Plan," follows and features a catchy singalong chorus that is first sung by a group of kindergartners yelling it out off key. Cute. "American Hearts" and "The Monkey Versus the Robot" come off as anthems for the youth of America, the first addresses inequality and the second the nine-to-five life. Shettel excels at describing scenes and situations and some of his words sound like they came from a little notebook ("Fear and Loathing on Cape Cod," "Long Nights," and "Karate Chops for Everyone but Us"). Each word is loaded, either with poignancy (the tender "It's Going to Get Worse Before It Gets Better") or humor ("The Stalker"), and it makes for very entertaining listening. You could tell Piebald were onto something with their early releases. Each album featured a few songs that stood out from the pack. And with We Are the Only Friends We Have, the band takes a giant leap forward and creates an album that ranks among the 2002's best. ~ Kevin S. Hoskins