I been in a musical-state-of-mind lately. After coming back from an exhilarating Sunday at Lollapalooza, I've gone through my two hard drives' worth of tracks I've randomly
Additionally, I checked today to make sure that The Pillows haven't released anything new, because they're so damn prolific. Indeed, no albums with exclusively new material have been released, but two twentieth Anniversary albums were recently put out, titled Once upon a time in the pillows, and Rock Stock & Too Smoking the pillows that equally draw from their entire career, including their older, pre-1997 stuff that often goes unmentioned here by their Stateside fans. These two collections themselves don't amount to anything much. One thing I've always found about The Pillows is the all-around strength of their albums from song to song. These two collections are but a trivial sampling of some of their singles. Frankly, no "Greatest Hits" collection can do The Pillows justice, because you just gotta listen to all of their albums to get a full experience. However, what Once Upon and Rock Stock mark is absolutely huge. The Pillows have been together for twenty years since their inception in 1989. Twenty fucking years, a stretch that is not marred by a single temporary breakup or hiatus. And not only have they been able to enviably stay together for so long, they've been consistent the whole way through. I'm not saying that everything they turn out is always balls-to-the-walls awesome, now. In my opinion, they've never been able to match their brilliant output from 1998 to 1999. My Foot is flanked on either side by some less than imperative albums. But, they've never turned out anything truly substandard. Yes, their sound may stay stagnant at times, and the criticism that they do some "recycling" is valid, but every single one of their albums, without fail, has left me in a cheery, optimistic mood by the end of a listen. So long live The Pillows. I'm truly happy they exist, and I hope I get to see them live once before the day I die.
