St. Spirit came together the way all good bands should come together; in college, after a friend hears another play a song, and after falling in love with a particular album (in this case My Bloody Valentine‘s Loveless). Add this to what seems to be a DIY sentimentality, (this Pigeon EP was recorded in a living room, mixed in a garden, rehearsed under a train, which if true is very indie indeed), and surely you have the potential for a great new British talent right?
Opening track, the title track, Pigeon is a bit misleading really. Full of energy, it has the sort of ethos of maybe early Editors, (think of their breakout single Blood and you’ll get the jist), a tight indie song with those downbeat, depressing, dark vocal tones. And on hearing Pigeon, you might instantly write St. Spirit off, after all, that is one NME fad that seems well over and done with.
Luckily for them though, Pigeon just seems a flash in the pan. Second track, Sweat, is a somber piece of music full of impassioned vocals over a single strummed acoustic guitar with harmonized vocals setting the haunting the scene while lyrically McCabe paints some haunting pictures with lyrics like “I feel like cocaine kids playing in the snow”.
Third track, New Skin, is just as haunting, with a melody possibly influenced by Radiohead (Kid A or maybe Hail To The Thief era), and almost Thom Yorke-esque vocals, and I say that as an advertisement rather than a criticism as I do believe that Radiohead are one of the greatest bands of our time.
While the fourth and final track that wraps up the EP, Tooth & Nail, has a little more oomph to it with a more prominent piano melody and overall orchestral feel, and for the first time since the unoriginal Pigeon, the guitarists figure out where their distortion pedals are to really hit home those chorus’, not to mention that it ends with a rather folk pop tinge to it.
St. Spirit are made up of five nineteen year olds, and I know you shouldn’t make judgments set upon age, but this Pigeon EP sounds like a mature collection written by thirty year olds who are comfortable with a sound they’ve spent years crafting album after album. Sure, the title track is a bit unoriginal, but if the three following tracks are anything to go by, then these guys have one hell of a future ahead of them.
[rating: 4]
