Piglet

Piglet are a band that truly exemplifies diversity.

The six songs on their album, Lava Land, cascade through various rhythms, cross genre lines without ever looking back, all the while maintaining a fairly cohesive feel that a lot of bands doing similar things would likely lose. Not Piglet though, they’re able to keep everything organized and fluent no matter the sound or the pace, and that’s really something to be appreciated. It’s imperative with an instrumental approach that the musicians can work and build off each other, it’s only then that truly impressive songs are able to be crafted. At times, the band has a real frantic, schizophrenic sound, and it comes across beautifully in the songs.

Take the mathy indie rock leanings of “Anthropology Anthology,” and just sit back and listen, you’ll likely be sold right there.

It takes a while for things to truly come into focus, but when they do, it’s a beautiful picture. Think a sped up, intensified version of American Football. Those same gorgeous, twinkling guitars that come through in the subdued, dreamy “Caramel” are still present, but they’ve dropped the lax feel and really picked up some vigor. The arrangements become more complicated, more calculated, in almost a knee-jerk type of fashion. That’s not to say “Caramel” is the band showing their “softer” side either, just a different side. There’s still some crunching guitars to be found when the song rises and falls, but it’s predominantly a very laid back effort. That’s what I find so endearing about the album as a whole, is that even in the faster, more hectic moments, there’s a lot of beauty to be found. The subtle, whimsical arrangements sounds just as solid as the more math rock-oriented ones, and no matter what, the entire album flows as one solid piece. Each track seamlessly works its way into the next. The last track is arguably the best, starting out with a dull pitter-patter on the snare drum and the subtle crashing on the hi-hats; while the drumming on the snare continues, the guitar slowly creeps in, getting louder and louder ever so slowly. At what seams to be a peak, things return back to normal again. The track endures several highs and lows before finally coming to a close.

I really don’t have a single complaint about Lava Land. There’s just so much to enjoy, and you’ll be rewarded each and every time you listen by finding something new. Stop sitting here, and go to your nearest record shop and pick this disc up.