Description

This Scottish quartet came to the attention of the British public in the mid-1970's with their brand of catchy, Beatles-inflected pop - all jangly guitars, handclaps, harmonies and melodies you couldn't get out of your head. Everyone knows "Magic", an enduring classic pop tune still heard today on adverts and "Classic Gold" style radio stations. When "January" hit Number 1 in 1975, it seemed that Pilot would really last the course. Sadly, this proved not to be the case. The problem appeared to stem from the fact that they became labelled as a band for teeny-boppers, a notoriously fickle marketmore…. In 1976 the band, by now a three-piece following the departure of keyboardist Billy Lyall) decamped to Morin Heights Studios in Canada with producer Roy Thomas Baker, whose CV included recent successes with Queen. The resulting album, named after the recording location, represented a conscious attempt to steer the band away from the cul-de-sac in which it found itself. Their intent is spelt out, not only in the droll reference to "no handclaps" on the original vinyl sleeve but also on each of the 11 tracks which make up the album. The immediate difference is in the production: apparently it cost a fortune to record and it shows. It is as dense as you will find anywhere and yet it never sounds cluttered or lacks clarity. The harmonies are still present but they are multi-layered in a manner which (perhaps not surprisingly) is slightly reminiscent of Queen. However, in spite of the fact that keyboards are more prominent than on the previous two albums, the album's real crowning glory is the guitar playing of Ian Bairnson (who, along with Pilot leader/bassist David Paton, would later appear in the Alan Parsons Project). On every track apart from the acoustic guitar-led "Steps" it rings out with hard-edged, bold strokes in a way which enhances, but never overwhelms the song.The songs themselves (written by Paton and Bairnson in roughly equal shares) are uniformly strong and, although traces of the "old" Pilot are still present (the singles "Canada" and "Penny In My Pocket" as well as "Lies and Lies" and "The Mover"), the emphasis is on weightier material. Some may say that Pilot should have stuck to what they were best at but to the ears of this reviewer it works spectacularly well and I defy anyone to remain unmoved by the climactic closing trio of "Trembling", "(Maniac) Come Back" and "Too Many Hopes" which segue together as a suite and make a stunning denoument to the album.Of course, such brilliance completely passed the record-buying public by and the album stayed glued to the shelves so it never achieved the recognition it deserved. Pilot later tried to re-kindle their past glories by reuniting with Alan Parsons (their producer on the first two albums) and recording "Two's a Crowd" (in reference to the fact that drummer Stuart Tosh had by then also jumped ship), an album which showed a retreat to the earlier style. Despite some quality moments (particularly the single "Get Up And Go"), the album was completely ignored and to this day remains (to my knowledge) unavailable on CD. Pilot ceased as a functioning unit shortly afterwards, leaving a strong feeling of unfulfilled promise.However, (to use a cliche) their musical legacy remains and "Morin Heights" still has pride of place in my collection. If you ever see a copy of this, pick it up - you'll be in for a treat. It would be nice if "Morin Heights" could one day be recognised for what it is - a masterpiece.

Tracks

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Info:

Category:

Music > Albums

Case Type:

CD

Release Type:

Retail

Comments:

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Cover Info:

Title:

Pilot - Morin Heights (2000) Retail CD

Part:

Back

Dimensions:

1007 x 782 px

Size:

147 KB

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Report a Problem Wrong Cover Duplicate Image Bad Quality Wrong Info

03/02/07 by allcdcovers

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