It takes all of about 10 seconds of listening to this record to realize you are listening to something special, and about the same amount of time to be completely sucked into Blind Pilot’s wistful, melancholic world of acoustic guitars, dulcimers, violins and the like. The quality of the vocals and the melodies are what make this such an enjoyable listening experience. There will certainly be comparisons (justifiably so) to Iron and Wine, primarily due to instrumentation, but also due to the long, meandering, flowing construction of verses. It takes a special kind of songwriter to bust free of the usual rhyme scheme, to break out of the cadence that comes so naturally to singer/songwriters. Fortunately, Israel Nebeker and Ryan Dobrowski possess this ability; more fortunately, they were so eager to share it with us that they packed their gear on their backs and bicycled around the west coast on tour. If this doesn’t fully endear them to you, I’m not sure what will. This also allowed them to test out their songs in smaller towns along the way, towns that don’t see bands every day, or every week even. This method of literal self propulsion is reflected in their musical interaction, with intimate percussion and acoustic strumming providing all the momentum necessary to carry us, floating, along with them.
-- William Carey [July 22, 2008]
