Banner Pilot is some of the most bare-bones pop-punk bands that’s out today. Their catalog is full of raspy vocals, big hooks, and a bass-heavy mix. Most songs are about the Midwest, winter, or parking lots. Sometimes, it’s all of the above. Banner Pilot is by no means the most exciting band in the Fat Wreck Chords stable.

Fat Wreck Chords is not the most exciting label this year.  Fat Wreck hasn’t been an exciting label in years.  In this reviewer’s opinion, Fat Wreck hasn’t been exciting ever.  They catch lightning in a bottle every few years, like when they released Descendents’ Cool To Be You or when they released Dillinger Four’s C I V I L W A R.  Both are excellent albums by bands with a proven track record.

Add Heart Beats Pacific to that list.  From a band whose staple is to be the most generic Minneapolis pop-punk there is, they’ve released one of the best punk albums in years.  Heart Beats Pacific is an album that revisits the band’s love for crunchy guitars, Midwestern winters, and parking lots.  If you don’t believe that it’s all they sing about, listen to three songs by them and you’ll hear references to all of those.

But for some reason, it works incredibly well.  On this album the references are closer together and it makes for less of a lack of imagination and more of an overall theme.  And if you don’t get why every song is about these things, you’ve never spent a winter in Middle America.  It’s boring.  There’s not much to do outside of lay in bed and wait it out.

Songs like “Spanish Reds” and “Intervention” mix the clean and rough vocals up to the point where you’d think there’s two vocalists, but there’s not.  The first sounds like a better Blink-182 with an infectious hook about laying around and drinking cheap wine.  The second is about drinking far too much, to the point where everything around is a mess, and not wanting an intervention.  The first part of this record is ostensibly about substance abuse, and the second part is about how messed up life gets when you rely on alcohol so much.

The closing track, “Division Street,” is a resolution to all of the problems.  It’s a five minute track, which is pretty much an eternity for a Banner Pilot album.  But it fits.  It takes a lot to tie up the loose ends on this album, and this track does it incredibly well.

Banner Pilot don’t go out of their way to innovate, but when they’re not doing that, they’re writing great songs.  Heart Beats Pacific gives a depth to them that they didn’t have before.  They’re not going through the motions anymore, it seems.  It’s a brilliantly honest album that begs you to sing along with it, but as infectious as it is, it won’t have to twist your arm to do so.

8/10

By: Jay Papandreas

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