Pilot to Gunner - GetSaved

Thu 6th May, 2004 in Music Reviews

What the fuck is Emo?

At first glance it seems a fairly amorphous genre covering any music that’s emotional. I really don’t understand classifying music because it is emotional. Shouldn’t all music contain emotion: joy, anger, sadness, et al. Isn’t that what makes music great, and doesn’t all music contain these things? Possibly not that manufactured plastic that passes for pop music these days.

Taking a closer look at it, Emo came out of the hardcore scene of the late 80s, early 90s, when hardcore bands were trying to break away from the angry lyrics and screaming they were well known for. Ian Mckaye, lead singer for hardcore legends Fugazi, coined the term Emo during an interview. The genre has grown from its underground hardcore roots to also encompass indie rock. The most well known Emo band is probably Weezer, but you could bundle punk boy band, Blink-182, in this category as well.

Get Saved, Pilot to Gunner’s sophomore album fits neatly into this genre. This album shies away from the clichéd saccharine love lost, love gained tracks, which have become the general fodder for most popular emo artists (read Blink-182, etc).

Instead the lyrics are based around cryptic references to recent events. Lead singer/guitarist Scott Padden’s vocal style tends to render the lyrics on most of the tracks fairly uncomprehendable. You can pick out words here and there, but on most of the tracks I had trouble picking up full stanzas and verses. The vocals tend to blend into the music like another instrument. This is not a bad thing, it adds to the sonic tableau of each of the tracks. It does make an album that is definitely not good for singing along to. I think if you tried to sing with it you’d end up singing completely wrong lyrics and there’d be a lot of nah, bah, flah’s in there.

Get Saved blasts along at a break neck speed. From the title track opener, through to Sorry Names it barely skips a beat. The instruments are played fast, and this is definitely an album that likes to be played loud. When I was listening to the disc for this review, my neighbours complained about the volume of the music, I told them it was the CD’s fault, it just kept pushing the volume higher.

Get Saved, the title track to me is the standout track on this album, its so strong and such a perfect opener. It rocks along and introduces the listener to album well. It defines the musical boundaries. Metropolitans, the Product and Hey Carrier follow on well, continuing on in a similar style.Sorry Names slows things up a bit, with vast expansive guitar work, that would not be out of place on indie rock albums. This may be the track with the reported reference to September 11 in it. From Sorry Names the album picks it up a notch with Barrio Superstarrio, No-blooded and Hot Circuitary. By the end of the disc the tacks start to taper off a bit. When the album closes with Sound Recovery, you feel satisfied and ready to move onto something else.

Whilst Get Saved is a good album, it is by no means great. Pilot to Gunner’s reputation comes from an awesome live show. In some ways this album is a little over produced, and it really does not deviate from the straight and narrow line that’s established on the opening track. It’s the catchy tunes which really gives this album its appeal.