pelican - city of echoes

Fortunately for Chuck Norris, the latest offering from Chicago favourites Pelican looks set to buck the trend of over-indulgent instrumental albums in favour of a much more speaker friendly effort. Guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec playfully describes ‘City of Echoes’ as Pelican’s “pop album,” though in truth it is no more a pop album than Metallica’s ‘Black Album’ or AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’ – it’s simply their most accessible. What you actually have here is a tremendously diverse instrumental rock album which covers a variety of styles across the musical gamete. The galloping guitar riffs and pounding double kick drums that fans have come to expect from Pelican remain prominent on many of the songs, but there seems to be a greater flow to the album as a whole with the driving, heavier tracks interspersed with considerably softer efforts. Album opener ‘Bliss In Concrete’ and mid-album track ‘Dead Between The Walls’ crash through the speakers with about as much grace and subtlety as a stampeding elephant, but are contrasted perfectly with the softer tracks ‘Far From Fields’ and the aptly named ‘A Delicate Sense of Balance’, which wander gracefully through their allotted time. It’s very rare that an instrumental rock album will remain on anyone’s stereo for more than two or three tracks, as this is generally the length of time it takes to realise that you a) shouldn’t have bought it in the first place, and b) have just lost 10-15 minutes of your life that you will never get back. Fortunately, this is where Pelican have achieved their greatest success – creating an instrumental album you actually want to listen to over and over again.