Sunpilots, The - Living Receiver (Album)
It’s clear that those who revere the golden age of grunge, still sporting ponytails and mourning Kurt Cobain – and those twenteen year olds now discovering flanellette shirts for the first time – will lap this baby up. It seems in this current backward-looking music scene, that the Sunpilots debut album Living Reciever follows themes of darkness, despair and veiled drug references are likely to become share-household names. As their website promises, we will be hearing from them a lot in 2008.
The Sunpilots recent assault on commercial radio airwaves has been fuelled by some key ingredients – winner of several national and international music accolades, including a $150,000 prize awarded by radio station NA2R; accosting well-respected producer (Phil McKellar – Grinspoon, Silverchair); and a schmicko album lay out, web page and MySpace.
Whilst being well executed and having the commercial music industry waiting with baited breathe for this release, Living Receiver offers nothing new. The largest surprise being that they are Sydney locals, and not plucked from the East Coast USA -as they would sound at home on the O.C. Soundtrack. The album – sounding like an unreleased Live album - follows a formulaic Pearl Jam style approach of a pensive vocal solo in the intro soft, followed by walls of guitars – however there are a few moments to mention: Drones showcases some sweet guitar and bass work; Shooting Stars – a nostaligic Eddie Vedder moment; and Ne Risque Rien a social comment about the cult of the modern celebrity.
All up, however, this album is a bit too ‘spit and polished’ and lacks the rustiness of its grunge predecessors. Hopefully the targeting of the commercial music industry has been a strategic ploy to gain airplay, and they’ll live a bit more dangerously in creating their second release.
