[kj] Pylon

[T.B.]

It looks like I'm going to be in the minority here, but after a day's worth of listening, I am thus far not as taken by Pylon as I was the last two albums, both of which hit me instantly upon first listens.

That said, Autonomous Zone kicks ass and is the best opening song for a KJ album since The Death And Resurrection Show.  The classic Big Paul drum break and the two note bass slap is just icing on the cake.  New Jerusalem and I Am The Virus are the other highlights and I hope all three songs feature regularly in the tour.

New Cold War and moreso, Euphoria are like harder versions of European Superstate.  Almost perversely, New Cold War and War On Freedom (minus Jaz' vox) sounds like they came from a mid 80's Judas Priest album (Screaming For Vengeance).  Instrumentally, I prefer Geordie's demo of Big Buzz over the finished song.  Dawn Of The Hive and especially Delete sounds like a Hosannas out-take without that distinctive Geordie guitar sound.

What I don't care for on this album is the production, especially regarding Jaz's vocals - most of the time it sounds like he's singing in a racquetball court there's so much reverb and echo making it almost impossible to decipher the lyrics.  A lot of people rag on how poorly Hosannas was recorded and produced but I actually think it sounds better than this album from a production standpoint.  I think whatever songs they chose to perform live off Pylon are going to sound much better than the studio versions, especially because Geordie's distinct tone will be far more prominent and Big Paul's drumming will have a lot less sonic mush to cut through.