There is a lot of music in here.
When I bought this record, a collection of Piebald's first three LPs, I'd never heard Piebald. We all have people whose musical opinions we trust and when they talk fondly of a band, you know you've got a decent chance of enjoying them too. When a whole bunch of these people all adore a particular band, it's almost rude not to give them a listen. That's basically what happened here; over a few years I became aware of more and more people talking about Piebald and they all got very excited when this record was announced for Record Store Day 2011. A triple LP for £26 is certainly a bargain on RSD, so I knew what I had to do.
Turns out all those people were right - Piebald are a band I'm glad I got into. To me they sound like Hum as an late-90's emo band, which is a pretty cool sound. You Won't be Seeing Me Again, for example, has that excellent combination of a quiet build up and crunching guitars whereas a song like Long Time is far more Saves the Day. On paper it would be hard to take Piebald seriously, with their equally ridiculous album titles and song titles. Even some of the songs steer slightly towards the comical side, but musically it's pretty consistent and pretty brilliant. There are also countless huge choruses, Part II: The Noreaster, Grace Kelly With Wings or The Monkey Versus the Robot being prime examples. Finally, the outro to Sex Sells and (Unfortunately) I'm Buying also deserves a mention.
The package here is pretty lovely too. Each of the albums is on a different colour record and housed in a great triple-gatefold. Inside there are lengthy pieces by the band members about each record which, being the terrible person I am, I haven't read yet (it's a very small font and a triple-gatefold sleeve doesn't make for the easiest book to read). Everyone has gone to a great effort to make this a lovely collection.
Format: Triple 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 36
Cost: £26 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 16/04/11
Colour: Green, transparent blue and transparent yellow
Etching: none
mp3s: no
