Pink Reason's newest EP came out just recently on Trickknee Productions. As a follow-up to the momentous “Cleaning The Mirror” LP on Siltbreeze, it doesn't fall too far from the established life-loathing folk sound the band has been known for. At Pink Reason's center, Kevin Failure is able to pen the sort of milky, ruminative songs that take the listener into a world of constant cataclysm and introspective trepidation. Life is probably as bad as Kevin Failure makes it out to be in his songs, but it is nice to hear such an artful reminder of the struggle we all face just existing. His tonal moping hasn't a peer in sight and save for maybe Lou Barlow's output well over a decade ago, there really isn't too much like it. But where Barlow's songs are overly tender and exposed, Pink Reason takes the humdrum bedroom crooning and pulls from more mystical corners with harmonies that drift into the netherworld of gothic delivery with a charmingly sneering and introspective self hatred. He come off as less of a victim, and more of a troubadour down on his luck and for our sake, lets hope his luck doesn't turn around because the result is simply brilliant songs.
The A-side opens up with a song fittingly titled “By A Thread” where the guitar sound sidles through a muddy fuzz that constantly builds a tension that is underscored by the echoed, unctuous vocals. On the B-side though, Pink Reason is able to portray the impending slip off the edge of engulfing dread with little song economy, sung with what sounds like stomping feet as the only instrumental accompaniment and still comes off with such a hook you're be singing it for weeks.
Pink Reason are performing with Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones in Salt Lake City and Denver this weekend where you can pick up a copy directly from the band or through any of the mail orders listed at the bottom right of our front page.
