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He's attractive, American, plays guitar and likes to get emotive. But he's called
Pigg, so stick a flower in his hand and we'll call it fresh. Without doubt there is a
decent voice shining through this LP called LP, but primarily the album is indicative of a guy who
"likes it when life happens naturally". Very, very normal.
A significant downside of this laborious 12-track affair is that every track sounds
almost identical. Think of a backing soundtrack for an episode of your favourite teen
drama, and you will have LP down to a tee. Opening track Can't Let Go sets the
precedent; Pigg's vocals arrive almost instantly, and the tidy instrumental section is
never given room to breathe. As a result, all attention is drawn to the singer's over-
keen vocal experimentation, which at times is just unnecessary. The chorus which,
funnily enough, goes "I can't let go" has enough of a melody to sustain attention, but
it is nothing that Dashboard Confessional have not already covered.
Last Stop follows the same path ("when it comes to us, I was getting tired of
pretending it was love") and never once succeeds in breaking from the mundane. Just
Like I Am took four years to write, and one wonders why such an effort was gone to.
It is perfectly possible to predict what is about to happen in each of these songs, and
regardless of how agreeable the sound is, that is a disaster.
Fans of Puddle of Mudd may hear the ghost of She Fuckin' Hates Me
in the track Trickery, a track in which Pigg's poetic influence comes to the fore
with the line "I'm like a homeless man caught in a storm, with no point to run for
cover". So brilliant that I have no idea what it means. Thankfully this is followed by
one of LP's better moments, Magnetism. With a good deal more aggression in the
vocals and a decent guitar hook, there is something here to get immersed in. One
bright point is followed by another, the quiet ballad Sailed On. A slow piano-led
build up breaks into a tender lament of lost love, which is by no means in the realms
of Jeff Buckley, but at least shows some progress.
Unfortunately moments of promise such as this do no more than briefly raise
expectancies. Overall LP seems a very calculated, simple affair, and this is summed up
by its closing track On The Other Side. With one of the main lines being "Don't let
life pass you by", it is clear that Pigg is not dealing with particularly meaty subject
matter, and the rest of the song similarly fails to challenge. This is a typically bouncy
concert closer about living life to its fullest and looking forwards instead of back, but
then you knew it would be.
Despite a very good vocal performance and an album rife with decent melodic
hooks, this is an album that you are more than likely to forget. A very flat and
uninspiring piece of nicely-packaged fluff. And fluff easily dissipates.
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