Wolves may take more than one listen to get past the richly produced, slightly emo electro-rock shoegaze aesthetic. At first it’s a lot to take in. The songs swing from “Refused” era punk shredding to Nintendo rock 8-Bit boops and bleeps. Upon further listen, you will find a deliberate, almost genius arrangement that would be difficult for a 10-piece band to put together coherently, let alone two dudes and that dork from Blink 182, Mark Hoppus, who co-produces the album.
Hey dude on the left, your little brother called. He wants his shirt back!
Luckily, legendary producer Ross Robinson (Glassjaw, At the Drive-In) is also on board to handle producing duties. Somehow the album comes edgy even after all the heavy effects are taken no account, which is no easy task. Songs like “Red Museum” seamlessly incorporate screams, guitar work that sounds like it came off a Smiths record, haunting verses, and hi-lo-tech computer programming.
Many of these songs, like “Theme From the Pit”, are so epic that it’s hard to imagine it not being licensed to every movie and TV show that comes out this year. The first single from the album, “Cruel World Enterprise” may be the hipster sex-jam of the year. There isn’t one stinker on this whole album, which is significant, considering that this is Idiot Pilot’s sophomore album, and sophomore albums are crap like 99% of the time.
If you like electronic rock music even a little bit, “Wolves” by Idiot Pilot should definitely be your next purchase. Seriously, do yourself a favor and be the first to pick this album up, so you can brag to all your hipster friends that you “were totally into Idiot Pilot way before they got all popular and stuff”.
