Music Spectrum

Yes, I’m an A.O.R. Guy But Here’s a Single Review:
Pilot Speed’s “Barely Listening” from Into the West

Yes, I’m an A.O.R. guy—album-oriented rock—meaning, in this case, that I prefer to hear entire albums, enjoy the flow of the songs as they were originally tracked, and feel that the best artists are those who have more than a standout track and 8 fillers.

However, every once in awhile, there’s an artist who has a great album, but it’s the single that catches my attention. That’s the case with Pilot Speed. I immediately loved what I heard on the Canadian group’s album, Into the West, but it’s one track, the first single, “Barely Listening,” that brought words to mind for this review.

“Barely Listening” bounces out to a start, and for just a moment, you can hear hints of the bass rhythm hop of early Cure. Then Todd Clark enters with his stanza vocal that is anthemic, wide-armed and yet on his knees. His voice stretches an introspective curtain over the shining, flashing beat.

Come to the chorus, though, and everyone is pogoing, spinning with arms wide like I used to dance to R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World (As We Know It)”—slamming with the tempo but doing that heart-on-sleeve pleading singing thing.

After one session of pogoing and emoting around my kitchen, I played the track again while reading the words, and I realized the song works as a lonely prayer on par with the cries of the Bible’s Psalms.

Lying awake on this phone call
She’s dreaming of better days
Flowers lie on the counter
Reminds her of better days

You can’t shape love with a hammer
You can’t shape life with a will
What horror lies in knowing
There’s no fate that chaos can’t kill.

This prayer isn’t of surety and confidence, but it is a prayer of honest doubt, struggle, and hopelessness. Interpreting the chorus to be addressed to Jesus, it’s a prayer for the days when we feel as if God isn’t listening to us. If the heavens seem to deaf to our cries, then we really are left thinking that there’s nothing that can conquer the chaos that is tearing apart our lives.

Slam those dark, difficult, depressed, desperate feelings into a pogoing beat, and suddenly it seems as if the confidence of faith—that’s not in the lyrics—is reflected in the music. The hope comes from the act of crying out with the fear and feelings, sending up a prayer despite having the doubt that anyone will pick up the phone.

A professor of mine at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Dr. Paul Raabe, called this the “nevertheless of faith.” In our experience amid this troubled world, we say, “I know you’re barely listening to my prayers, Lord; nevertheless I believe you hear me and will save me.”

Pilot Speed will send you pogoing out that nevertheless of faith, and as “Barely Listening” ends, you’ll find yourself listening to the whole album, overwhelmed by the searching, searing, soaring rock ‘n’ roll prayers.

Thanks to Pilot Speed, Wind-up Records, and Maple Music for the review CD. Lyrics © 2006 Pilate Music, Inc., and Wallachi Music Publishing, LLC (BMI).