"And how can we judge if your summer was better than mine?/ And how can we tell if the moment is in its prime?" queries the Piebald tune "Present Tense," before switching over to a chorus-line-esque rollicking beat. And my mind wandered: "Man, a full time job, classes (summer school!), no car! If I were in high school, this summer would blow!" But the thing is, I'm in college. I enjoy keeping busy, making money, and furthering my education, and am perfectly fine with Washington, DC's public transportation system.
The thing about aging is that, in most cases, our musical tastes also change. They evolve. It doesn't necessarily make what we used to enjoy bad, just different. It's an indisputable fact that the 16 or 17 year old Lindsay would've held All Ears, All Eyes, All the Time (Piebald's fourth full-length) as dear as she did their earlier albums. It's got the pop-punk with a winking, humorous edge we've come to expect from the Boston quartet, and adds some slower, more standard rock-pop songs. It's almost, dare I say, mature? But maturity doesn't approximate perfection. Missteps like the deliberately paced "Put Your Slippers On Instead" are sigh-worthy, but not in the manner Piebald intended. A cringe might be even more appropriate.
Part of me wishes I were spending days at home with my parents, on Long Island Sound's beaches with friends, instead of behind a desk. The same part of me wants the older permutations of Piebald's sound back. Simpler and simply different days, simpler and simply different songs. But, thankfully, the other part of my psyche wins out. Songs like "Part Of Your Body Is Made Out Of Rock," with its air-piano-worthy melody and near-crooning from singer Travis Shettel, are just complicated enough musically to confirm Piebald's talent. Shettel's lyrical sense of humor is still worn on his sleeve, as he crams the line "Looks like you may not makeittiltheendoftheweek" into "..Rock" and coaxes someone to "Poke me with a q-tip/ then claim it's a knockout" in the anthemic "Human Taste Test."
All Ears, All Eyes, All the Time's production is polished but not overly slick, the guitar solos never prove over-indulgent, and the sub-forty minute running time is ideal. This is an album full of fresh ideas for the band Piebald, even if they break little ground in the music world at large. Occasionally, those ideas fail. Other times, as on "All Senses Lost," elements come together perfectly with heartfelt (avoiding excessively emo pratfalls) and witty lyrics, a melody to strive for, a slower, more reserved tempo, refreshingly simple (but sufficiently full) instrumentation, and a palpable tension. This song, the album's longest, presents itself on track 13 as the finest. Piebald's latest effort thus cements itself as a worthwhile summer listen, even for those of us beyond high school.
1. The Benefits of Ice Cream
2. Present Tense
3. Human Taste Test
4. The Jealous Guy Blues
5. All Senses Interlude
6. Haven't Tried It
7. Giving Cup
8. Part of Your Body Is Made Out of Rock
9. The Song That Launched a Thousand Ships
10. Put Your Slippers on Instead
11. Get Old or Die Trying
12. New Boston Interlude
13. All Senses Lost
14. The Six Eighter
15. All Sense Is Lost Postlude
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