I thought I'd written about Pacer's first EP #1 on here, but I guess I haven't yet. I'll come back to that record another day, because I want to write about Making Plans today. Pacer are another band that I got into simply by seeing them play countless times in Kingston and London. I'd seen Dave House play his solo stuff back when I lived in Cardiff, but I'm not sure I even made the connection the first time I saw Pacer.
Anyway, Making Plans had a very non-standard release but has eventually ended up on vinyl. It first came out last year as a download and 8"x8" book featuring lyrics and artwork. There was also a pay-what-you-like on the band's bandcamp. I picked up a copy of the book+download code in Banquet that summer, but naturally forgot to download the album for a few weeks. Sometime later they announced that they were going to release the album on vinyl too, with space in the sleeve for the book to live, so I ordered that from Banquet and, fittingly, forgot to pick it up for a while after it arrived in-store.
I'm all for band's experimenting with how they release albums, but I must admit that the download didn't really work for me. Back when I had an office and a desk and desktop computer I found myself listening to mp3s loads, and had this album come out a year earlier, it would have got pretty heavy play I'm sure. As it was, it came out when I was doing most of my work in a library with either books or an internet-less laptop. On top of that, I find it hard to work while listening to music through headphones (unless it's instrumental, usually), so finding time to download an album and time to play it wasn't very easy, hence the weeks it took me to download it. (It's also worth mentioning that I'm pretty useless at redeeming my download cards and updating my mp3 player at the best of times.) So I was glad they pressed the album on vinyl too; I say that not because of any audio-snobbery, but I'm just not anywhere near as likely to find the mp3s on my laptop, plug in the cable that links to the hi-fi and play them that way, as I am to put the needle on the record. A testament to this is that I've listened to Making Plans far more times in the two months I've had the vinyl than in the nearly-year I've had the mp3s. Also, the blue and white splatter looks great.
So, that rant aside, what about the music? It's great. It's a nice step up from the EP and there are some brilliant songs (Little Avalons, Ice Eater and the excellently-named Explainer? I Hardly Know Her). My favourite song however is definitely Flutter, which ends with Dave and Mike "Woah-oh-oh"-ing while Mark sings without appearing to take a breath. I didn't notice the first few times, but the lyrics in the outro are the same as those at the start, and it's interesting how different they sound when sung differently and to a different beat. I like it a lot. The last time I saw Pacer was in The Black Heart and the lead vocals in the outro of Flutter were pretty much drowned out by the "woah-oh-oh"s, but it was great to see Mark singing along even though we couldn't hear him. It was quite a strange sight, but it worked.
Format: 12", 8"x8" book
Tracks: 12
Cost: £9 new (plus £6 for the book+download)
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 18/03/13
Colour: Blue with white splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: Download
