City of Echoes

iTunes Review

Pelican’s third studio long-player finds the Chicago quartet pulling in the reins of their instrumental epics to offer compositions shorter in length but just as powerful (if not more so) than the recordings that comprise their two preceding albums. Upon close listen, the band’s implementation of verse-chorus-verse architecture reveals that Pelican are building actual song structures here, rather than blasting off into the stratosphere without a map. Opener “Bliss In Concrete” has memorable changes that are almost as catchy as any hook-laden pop song. Their winning combination of post-rock and doom metal leans on the former more often than before, especially in the melodic title-track and the gossamer “Spaceship Broken – Parts Needed.” Another noticeable change in the band’s musicianship surfaces in the kind of taut changes and unspoken communication between players that could only have blossomed from the incessant touring of their first two albums. The ferocious “Lost In the Headlights” is a prime example of the band’s ability to keep their changes vacuum-tight while allocating propulsive riffs underneath exploding leads before pulling it all back in with a soft recoil.