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Weird Dreams - Choreography (album)

Crocodiles - Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9) 7”

The Hairs - I’ve Been Working Out 7”

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Album Review

Downpilot
New Great Lakes Tapete Records

Article written by Ged M - Oct 8, 2011

Downpilot: New Great Lakes

Singer/songwriter Paul Hiraga is effectively Downpilot here and it’s clear why his Americana-with-an-emo-twist was snapped up for the soundtrack of TV series One Tree Hill; American film and TV likes this sort of moody balladeering, full of introspection and wistful nostalgia for his declining Midwest homeland. There’s a smidgen of Elliott Smith in ‘Gone Castaway’ and ‘Rosebud of the Plain’ but without any real sense of hurt, and the politeness of the melodies and arrangements overshadow the images of urban decay in songs like ‘The Rustbelt’. The one song that bucks the trend is ‘Through Your Lines’, a duet with a female vocalist and droning guitars that sounds like those doomy Midwesterners, Low. For all the apparent intimacy of this record, it’s the one song on which it feels like he’s really saying what he needs to.

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