Rating: 4/5
The Boston native indie-rock trio Pile released a new EP on Jan. 5th, titled Hot Air Balloon EP.
With their everlasting tact for amalgamating complex layers of texture and sound, Pile reached their peak of ambitiousness in sound exploration with the release of Hot Air Balloon EP. Often crowned with the superlative of your favourite band’s favourite band, Pile’s growth in the quality of their grunge soundscape throughout their newest EP speaks to this perception.
Having reached critical success with the release of their early 2023 record, All Fiction, the band’s newest EP follows with unreleased songs from the album. The creative process for both pieces of work can be traced back to the pandemic, which allowed the band to grow in their ability to play with new sounds. Almost countercurrent to the workings of the rest of the music industry, Pile’s decision to include unreleased tracks from All Fiction in Hot Air Balloon EP was for the sake of meaning rather than profits.
“The songs that became the Hot Air Balloon EP were tracks that we felt could stand on their own, potentially as singles. There were songs on All Fiction that felt complimentary in that they needed to be there to represent the identity of the whole of the album,” said Pile’s frontman Rick Maguire for New Noise Magazine.
As a standalone art piece, Hot Air Balloon EP solidly stands its ground in Pile’s discography, always echoing previous sound palettes explored by the band, yet never painting itself as a cash-grab B-sides project.
Perhaps one of the most intriguing yet complex tracks in the EP is “The Birds Attacked My Hot Air Balloon.” While the organ and the drums in the song crescendo to create a sombre backsplash in the song, the lyrics eloquently paint a horror movie-esque scenario. The song tells a story about birds attacking the protagonist’s air balloon until the balloon, and the protagonist, start descending from the sky. Without depicting gross details of what the chaotic situation entails, the song’s sound production and storytelling are powerful and serene.
Another standout track from the EP for its psychedelic-infused catchiness is “Exits Blocked”. The song explores deep themes of perfectionism, accompanied by rich layers of sound that mesh together effortlessly.
“This one’s about how we get in our own way and the pursuit of perfection will always be a fruitless one. This was one of the looser and weirder songs to pull together. And strangely, the chorus was the last part to be pulled into it, which I think is one of its strongest sections,” said Maguire on the Brooklyn Vegan.
Overall, the EP follows a mellow yet rough around the edges style in terms of production and lyricism. While sometimes packing a punch, the layering of sound tends to soften the heavy guitar and drum composition underneath, creating a sombre and warm atmosphere.
