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I gotta talk about them again … cough ,, I gotta talk about Pidgeon again ….
I have listened to basically nothing else but these guys for 2 weeks straight at this point.

WHY is there another band from San Francisco releasing 2 insanely good albums from the early to late 2000s and then just DISAPPEARING? Like genuinely a one year difference in release date to the Sweet Trip albums.
I might say I’d love for a comeback, but if I hear about a reunion for these guys coming up soon I’m going to go so crazy. Maybe some things are truly best left in the past.

From Gutter w/ Love, despite being their debut, is every bit as good as their followup - maybe lacking a bit in the metal department, but this doesn’t even make it close to being as less interesting as a result. I can’t think of another band who sounds like they do, or at least come close to them in terms of the same level of quality. It’s so bizarre to me how they can just appear out of nowhere, drop nothing but club hits for the entire four or so years they were active, and then just vanish into thin air. No social media, no website, no projects before this, no side projects after, I guess they just recognised their greatness and went “yeah our work is Done.” ??? A shame, I guess, but their history is so unblemished as a result, I can’t think of an artist with a more perfect discography.

The opener, this time, is so much stronger too. The Second One, despite actually being the first one, begins the album off with so much energy and mania, and I think is the only song of theirs that is exclusively sung by just Micah. This time, with discernible, and written down lyrics! Truly I am spoiled - and I’m glad to be, because being able to understand everything reveals just how talented of a songwriter he is too.

It feels like a constant back and forth between him recognising and relishing in some sort of suffering that has befallen him - with all of the themes of hopeless romanticism littered throughout these songs, likely as a result of some unrequited love interest. The opening lyric line “My hope soars, and I bleed” I think encapsulates everything so perfectly - he knows getting his hopes up for this person ultimately ends in disappointment, but either he can’t help doing so, or willfully continues to despite being aware of the onset of suffering that will follow. He creates illusions of the subject in his mind “dying to free him”, but then describes a violent earthquake following to shake him back to his reality. His rising voice descending into screaming as he sings about it making him “afraid for [his] fate”, but “[he] can’t wait, it feels great!” is so intoxicatingly satisfying and manic. I love how the song has these short lackadaisical clean vocal breaks which are immediately juxtaposed by some more heavy riffs and screaming. This duality is so awesome.

Strelmikev reintroduces the boy-girl singing overtop of one another in complimenting lyric lines, and is an anti-war song every bit as energy driven as the opening track. It’s also allegedly about Pasha Andropov as specifically pointed out in a Genius summary, but the link that quote was taken from has been long since dead and I suppose I’ll never truly know. The lyrical content and Russian sounding title allude to as much anyways.

My favourite song from this album is Fiona, purely on lyrical content alone. While being the most straight-forward, I think it is so pitifully and hopelessly forthcoming that I can’t help but admire it. It encapsulates the hopeless romantic archetype so painfully and desperately, to which the narrator of the song is extremely self-aware about too, with the opening lyric line being plainly “Can I rub your feet, Fiona?”, and even stating that they know the subject of the song will hate everything they have written, but they are unable to be anything but honest with them regardless.

Every single line describes how they are building up and fantasising about this person in their mind, and what they mean to them - in clean riffs and vocal work conveying this romantically and emotionally, and then a distorted guitar passage covering more carnic and Sinful desires. I love how the end of each verse ends with them going “Aaah” all over the place, like they’re running through everything they want to say so quickly and earnestly that they become breathless and meandering.

The beachy guitar tones that end the song give off the feeling that this is supposed to be a lovesong, but it’s contrasted with the last lyric line denoting how they would be okay being used, “maybe you can make some money off me when I’m dead and gone”, and kind of acts as a reminder that its not. Or that they’re so in love, they wouldn’t care, with no acknowledgement from the subject, hoping that this sacrifice and show of love might make them accept or reciprocate.

There are some nice anti-war/anti-nationalist songs, too, and so many other highlights, like Ain't Nothing Can’t which had me jamming so hard until the end of the song where Valerie is left alone singing “I know that can never happen” and nearly made me cry out of nowhere, and Disco which has a really cool and titular disco rhythm going through it, and Me To Play which features Micah’s absolute best scream in some moment of lucidity amidst all the fawning, which gives me chills every time before it devolves into the noise ridden outro:

YOU NEVER THINK ABOUTTTT
ANYONE BUT YOUUUUUUUUAUSHDASDSGFSJKFHLJKL;

They're so good... sniff

Hopefully having written most of what I wished to say, my mind will be made free .
I love and I hate you. ^_^