Shiny Toy Guns - We Are Pilots (Mercury)
4/5
By: Chris O'Toole
The appallingly named Shiny Toy Guns are a synth pop band from the flood plains of North America, and are seemingly on a mission to improve the mood of glowering music fans the world over. Their plan is to combine the basic elements of Europop, essentially exact replicas of those trance beats that filled the charts to bursting point during the 1990s, with a slightly rawer bass driven momentum and heavily treated drum sound to create a heady mix of sunshine cabaret. And believe it or not, with a large dose of suspension of disbelief, they miraculously achieve their aim.
For this reason 'We Are Pilots' is a lesson in humility and objectivity. However much you want to hate it, think you are detached from it, cannot possibly be taken in by it, I challenge you to listen to the album in its entirety and to maintain a stern face throughout. If you can, well, you lost your sense of humour to a suicide bomber far too long ago. This is pure escapism, perfect for grim winter months; the music flows stealthily over you, passing through each pour without leaving a trace. A form of instant gratification that is instantly lost.
The driving force of the band is the synth / programming of Jeremy Dawson and Chad Petree, who combined create a sound so polished that you can see your grimacing reflection in it. The pair ply layer upon layer of synthesised keyboards to create a form of electronic sunshine and add snippets of nonsensical vocals and bass hum whenever the mood takes them. The archetype of this formula is presented on the albums opening track, 'You Are the One'. Sounding as if the Killers had been exiled from Las Vegas and having sought asylum somewhere in Europe turned their hand to crafting throw away pop numbers, the track is a resounding success. Sheets of synth are released in a form of controlled fever, gradually building to create a rough guide to what machines expect from heaven, before the track explodes into a fist in the air chorus. Remarkable stuff.
This opening gambit is quickly reinforced by Le Disko, which peels back the layers of the Shiny Toy Guns sound to reveal itself as a Peaches influenced disco rocker; all raucous shouting and posturing for the cameras. However the sound is somewhat less aggressive anything Merrill Nisker would put her name to as the band stamp their own style over the top of the cock rock stomp and apply their own saccharin sweetness and transform the track into carousel music. This is the music you hear on fairground rides five years after it has been released, but it is happening right here right now in your living room. As you spin round and round on the Wurlitzer gradually losing conciseness and the nuts and bolts come uncoupled sending you spinning out in the crowd of families and small children, this is the tune you will hear that makes the almost certain death an uplifting and rewarding experience.
After this opening coupled the band reverts to form with 'Starts With One'; what might be called a zany track by a parent and perhaps might be played by a slightly funky DJ at a school disco. It is virtually identical to the opening number, and again machines are employed to synthesise honey and vocals are pushed to the very top of the octave scale. However the lyrics are trite boy meets girl fodder and don't really do the impressive vocal contributions justice. The following 'When They Came For Us' marks the transition from functional working relationship to active intimate relationship between the human and mechanical elements of Shiny Toy Guns. Chad Petree laments "why are all the robots so sad?" with a hint of genuine affection for his electronic band mates, in a style heavily reminiscent of the Pet Shop Boys during the 1990s; swirling vocal sweetness ebbing and eddying around the usual suspects of trance beats and mesmerising drumming.
Only 'Waiting' and 'Rainy Monday' offer a slight change of tack when the bands black and white emotional register has been turned away from euphoric and pointed squarely at desolate. These two tracks are characterised by searching bass lines, like little children lost in the forest following bread crumb trails, and inconsolable vocal sketches concerned with loss and the eternal salvation from the eternal nameless spectre that haunts all of our days.
As the album closes 'Don't Cry Out' and 'Jackie Will Save Me' continue to mine the collapsing vein of synth pop nostalgia, sounding like U2 having a laugh and not weighed down by hundreds of years of English political tyranny and a suspect guitarist who only has one guitar pedal and fewer chords. The albums title track is one of the best and is saved virtually till last. Synthetic noise and vocoder arrive like a speeding train and morph into a Cranberries song, emotional on a basic level, so universal as to apply to each and every person ever to be born, replete with references to mother and father, and allowing a brief moment of introspection without answers.
Although not revolutionary, Shiny Toy Guns are entertaining, engaging and euphoric; high quality disposable pop. The album art work is marred by some dire posing and photography that can only have been during a three day peyote trip in the desert and resulting in the band looking like glam desert bandits, lost out on the dunes for decades and emerging as a cross between the Nazi SS and a your local readers wives S&M aficionado. These drawbacks however do not detract from the sheer enthusiasm and energy of a band in full flow, and on the up.
Artists in this article: Shiny Toy Guns
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