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Burning Airlines

Mission: Control! (1999)
Desoto Records

Reviewer Rating:

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Contributed by: Soupdumpling
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on January 16th 2007

Among several other things, Burning Airlines’ debut is jagged, smooth, in your face, swirling around your head, cold, and warm all at once. It’s a record with instrumentation and lyrics that can stand alone in their own rights, but when coupled with one another are simply undeniable.

“Carnival” introduces the band with a flurry of curveballs, as the heaviest riffage on the record leads the way into a relatively laid back verse with clever melody, setting the stage for a spiraling chorus that echoes its words: “I’m finding my own way around our carnivalesque common ground. When are the tents coming down?”

Mission: Control! boasts some very tight bass and drum interplay. “The Escape Engine” has verses with a feel equivalent to that of a bumpy road, while “Flood of Foreign Capital” makes it sound like the world is ending beneath the most minimalist of guitar lines. Additionally, the guitars on this record are very inventive and fresh. They’re spastic in “Crowned,” wet with effects in “3 Sisters,” straightforward in “Wheaton Calling,” and virtually all of the aforementioned in “I Sold Myself In,” making it a fitting closer.

Burning Airlines have crafted a record that works on so many levels. Mission: Control! sets the bar very high in terms of both lyricism and musicianship and marries the two with only the finest of melodies.

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RRK (January 18, 2007)

Score is for the review.

I've heard people talk about this album and I'm interested in hearing it, but your 'review' sucked ass. I have no idea what this is supposed to sound like.

Scruffy (January 18, 2007)

I vastly prefer Identikit to this one. Identikit is so much catchier and hooky, while still being J. Robbins weird.

Anonymous (January 16, 2007)

great record, good people.

wyzo

Anonymous (January 16, 2007)

yeah this record rules. i liked identikit a lot too but probably not as good on the whole

theyounginfluential (January 16, 2007)

did people really not like identikit? i mean, i do prefer this album, but identikit was great too.

damnitsderek (January 16, 2007)

I like Burning Airlines, but I never got around to listening to the entire album. I think I'll do that now.

Inspection12e (January 16, 2007)

Classic album.

notfeelingcreative (January 16, 2007)

"As much as I liked Jawbox, I never got too into Burning Airlines or Channels."

I must second that, I loved Jawbox, but neither of Robbins's recent projects has done much for me.

Anonymous (January 16, 2007)

Since Channels still hasn't been reviewd, I'll write something up as soon as I can get around it.

Also, this album is fantastic, it's a shame BA dropped off so much with Identikit in comparison. The loss of Bill Barbot really hurt.
-Osloboditelj, back from Ecuador and still too lazy to log in on any computer but my own.

leezdeez (January 16, 2007)

This record is amazing. I know J Robbins has been in a handful of different bands, but this record was my first encounter with anything he did and I was floored right away.

maverick (January 16, 2007)

As much as I liked Jawbox, I never got too into Burning Airlines or Channels. However, I did dig the die-cut packaging on this CD.

-Scott

branden (January 16, 2007)

this band rules

BrendanKelly (January 16, 2007)

where's the channels review?

nocigar (January 16, 2007)

horrible review

200_Bars (January 16, 2007)

J. Robbins at his finest. Such a great record.