By Ryan Broderick
Idiot Pilot’s newest release, “Wolves,” is a strange one. If you aren’t familiar with Idiot Pilot, don’t feel too bad, they’re a rock/prog/electronica/post-hardcore/everything-in-between band from Washington, and they find a way to stay under the radar just enough to be a cult favorite.
Their latest album, though, takes a lot of the nuances of their early work and really gives them space to sonically do whatever they please.
“Wolves” was produced by Mark Hoppus, among others, and features the duo backed by Travis Barker and Chris Pennie, the drummer from Coheed and Cambria. The production here is impressive, and much of the duo’s creative choices are equally so. They find a way to mix heavy, throbbing guitar and ambient electronics into a cohesive sound that is dynamic and fresh.
What doesn’t sound so fantastic though, is the album as a whole. By the fourth or fifth track you find yourself wishing it would end, or change pace, or just wishing it did something, anything.
Frontman Michael Harris alternates between a Tom Yorke, croon-and-throaty, scream-o vocal, and, while it works, it just isn’t anything new. Three or four years ago, such tactics and musical combinations would have been considered groun-dbreaking in the realm of emo/post-hardcore. Disappointingly enough, most of the songs on “Wolves” just sound like something Alexisonfire did seven years ago.
This newest release from Idiot Pilot is recommended to two types of listeners. “Wolves” will be a godsend for those who remember the washed-out, scream-o that boomed for a split-second in the early ’00s and it might just ring a chord with a new group of teenagers looking for something that sounds intelligent and hard at the same time.
Unfortunately for Idiot Pilot, it’s a chord that many bands have played before.