Pile
All Fiction


3.0
good


Release Date: 02/17/2023 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Falling up the stairs, backwards

The surrealness-ness of All Fiction is intoxicating. It (the surreality) penetrates the entirety of Pile’s 9th outing, sewn generously throughout its various trappings and turbulence; and, frankly, I’ve had the hardest time attempting to decipher or appraise it. These vaguely post- sorta noise compositions do not conform. That (I suspect) may be a guised, clumsy way of me saying that they are just not very good - I’m not sure, I haven't decided - yet I sense there’s a nugget of gold buried beneath these discordant indie tunes that’s worth sifting through the bathwater to find.

Desperate, moody “Gardening Hours” can’t decide what time of day it is. It reveals shimmers of sunshine, sparingly, swiftly slamming shutters (erm) shut in favour of grunge-adjacent nocturnal clunking and deadness. It then opens up, again, with some very lovely and also eerie crooning a la “Link Arms”, which oh no then becomes weary and watchful again, the sinister, angular thematics ratcheting up and up and up and --

-- it’s all in the structure, I think; nothing is built the way you’d expect. A bridge unfolds into a bridge into a bridge w/o chorus or climax or substance(?). Again, I’m still trying to figure that part out. I guess whether this structureless-ness is a good or a bad thing is at the mercy of the listener’s relative perspective and headspace, as opposed to within Pile’s control (would you like to wander blindly, lost and wheezing and fucked, or not?). Wait. Drums!! YES!!! That’s what’s missing from “Blood”, and others; a minimalist flair plucked, no doubt, from their (less-than-successful) ambient excursion of 2021. It certainly presents as vague and weightless and jarring within --

-- All Fiction, but --

-- really, thinking about it, I (personally) prefer --

-- “Loops”! And “Forgetting”! And “Nude With a Suitcase”! With these cuts, there’s at least a foundation and an intent and a plan. Let me not overstate the scale of the problem: thoughtfulness and songwriting are not absent from All Fiction's wishy-wash-ier cuts - it’d be arrogant and dumb-dumb to suggest otherwise, particularly given how lovely the aforementioned “Blood” (and “It Comes Closer”) can be when all the strings come undone. The point I'm making, rather, is that there’s just more to sink your teeth into when all the disparate, volatile components that make up Pile’s most ambitious and mature project coalesce as one; when they actually feel choreographed, rather than crackling and popping at odd intervals w/o a bigger picture in sight (giving me jittery ‘car backfire’ vibes). Through these disorganized antics, however, a purer sense of confusion is achieved. You get this brilliant pang of unease when “Poisons” kicks the shitting door down that, I suspect, wouldn’t be there if the remainder of the record were more predictable. The same, kinda, can be said of closer “Neon Gray”, who’s serenity feels all the more surprising and joyous for the freeform cacophony before it. The lyrics are cryptic and ethereal, also (it works). But did we really have to sacrifice so much meaty substance in the process? There’s nothing to grab onto.

What I still adore about Pile, though, is that I do not (and can never) know who they are. Their relentless, reckless drive for NEW is cool, as is the way it severs any sense of responsibility for any one of their projects to follow a particular blueprint and, with it, any sense of expectation (positive or negative) on the part of you (as the listener). There’s very little of fan favourite Dripping left within 2023 Pile, and less still of 2009’s Jerk Routine. With this removal of history and borders, room for spontaneity and discovery have been cleared out and left open, which is good. Praise for that creative spark aside, erm, I’m not sure it has done enough to turn All Fiction into the ugly masterpiece that it constantly threatens to become. Overinflated and squealing: it is not more than the sum of its parts. One hundred thousand good ideas, it turns out, are not enough to make an album.



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user ratings (48)
3.3
great
other reviews of this album
Mike Kaplan STAFF (3.5)
The noise in my headphones certainly isn’t fictitious....



Comments:Add a Comment 
AsleepInTheBack
Staff Reviewer
February 19th 2023


10447 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

hic

Sunnyvale
Staff Reviewer
February 19th 2023


6175 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Nice review!



I've been digging this album but would find it impossible to write about. It's very hard to place what makes it tick or even what it sounds like, but I'm enjoying digesting it so far.

Manatea
Staff Reviewer
February 19th 2023


2072 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Love this review.

AsleepInTheBack
Staff Reviewer
February 19th 2023


10447 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Yo yes this is hard as hell to write on, hence why I went for the steam of consciousness vague eek approach. They took a very textural and weird approach to this release and I can’t tell whether it’s interesting and novel or just bad. Thinking emoji or smthn.

Manatea
Staff Reviewer
February 20th 2023


2072 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

I kind of feel like I rushed my write-up now having listened to some of their earlier stuff. Probably would have ended up more in your vein tbh.

fogza
Contributing Reviewer
February 20th 2023


10077 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Really surprised at the reaction to this! Good review though.

AsleepInTheBack
Staff Reviewer
February 20th 2023


10447 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

It’s either a masterpiece or a trainwreck and I can’t quite figure out which

fogza
Contributing Reviewer
February 20th 2023


10077 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

I actually think this is the best pile album i've heard

Pajolero
February 20th 2023


1459 Comments


This will probably take more than a few listens to fully absorb, but my initial impressions are quite positive. It's different, slow and moody, yes, but still feels like a Pile record.

normaloctagon
Contributing Reviewer
February 21st 2023


4379 Comments


gorgeous album cover and great review haha

XingKing
February 21st 2023


16199 Comments


I have no idea what this is but that cover is beautiful

Doomcifer
February 21st 2023


19 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

This album needs to time to hitch itself under your skin. It's definitely not an immediate listen.

JoylessBastard
February 21st 2023


493 Comments


Fucking love this band, please don't diappoint me

AsleepInTheBack
Staff Reviewer
February 21st 2023


10447 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

If you love this band, I think you’ll love this. The vibe here is very much the Pile vibe, it’s just more abstract than usual. It’s like if you deconstructed them and then put them back together again, w/o instructions and while very, very, very stoned.

ashcrash9
Contributing Reviewer
February 21st 2023


3395 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Love the review and thankfully love the album even more on first listen. This is my first go with this group and I'm eager to hear more if, as you allude, they're the sort with a track record that keeps you guessing

AsleepInTheBack
Staff Reviewer
February 22nd 2023


10447 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Glad you dig frendo. Check Dripping for their fan fave, stuff before dripping for a more folky post hardcore thing, and stuff after Dripping is generally closer in sound to this (except for the random ambient project)

verdant
Emeritus
March 1st 2023


2505 Comments


pile are the most enchanting rock band of the past 200 years, good review

AsleepInTheBack
Staff Reviewer
March 3rd 2023


10447 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Hey Henlo Hi jack how are you

fogza
Contributing Reviewer
April 2nd 2023


10077 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Live show was pretty intense in a low key way, see 'em if you can

jmh886
April 7th 2023


2945 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

This feels like the next logical step after green and gray. it is growing on me.



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