Release Date: June 22nd, 2010
Genre: Indie rock, pop
Label: None
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/agreatbigpileofleaves

Hearing about A Great Big Pile Of Leaves’ debut full-length, Have You Seen My Prefrontal Cortex?, will probably  result in more than a few “can you repeat that for me?”s, but is memorable enough to remember to look up. It’s also 50 minutes of damn good music. Anyone who has read just a few of my reviews might have noticed that there is definitely a pattern to the type of voice I swoon over. For instance, the vocals in Circa Survive, Harvard, Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate), Portugal. The Man… They’ve all got very high, clear voices. A Great Big Pile of Leaves is totally out of my normal music preference just based on the fact that Pete Weiland’s voice is low and a bit gravelly. While me being so in love with his voice is an anomaly, I think it was about time for me to like something new.

“Alligator Bop” opens the album perfectly with its rich guitar and is a very accurate representation of A Great Big Pile of Leaves’ overall sound. Smooth, jazzy, poppy, fun and high energy. This is a great introduction to Weiland’s incredibly distinct vocal style, which I will talk about throughout the entire review because it’s really important to me. I must have read the lyrics to this song at least one hundred times yet, I have to stealthily insert my own made up lyrics, usually “I don’t know the words for this part” (or as some would call it, the worst scatting in history) because the vocal pattern is so unusual. There is a lot of repeating words mid-sentence and jamming the rest of the line in by skipping some words instead of completing the entire line the first time.

“We Don’t Need Our Heads” introduces two themes I am a big fan of: getting older and nostalgia. Everything about this song makes me feel okay about getting older, something that as a soon to be twenty year old, I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Anyone older than me probably just laughed and thinks I’m absurd, but this is really a “what the hell am I going to do with my life?” age. This song just reminds me that I don’t have to have it all figured out. A Great Big Pile of Leaves’ musicianship makes it really hard to pick out a strong point or instrument in a song because it’s all so strong. The verses have intermittent guitar and bass, but Tyler Soucy’s drumming fills the song so well that I didn’t even notice that the rest of the instruments were missing! The group vocals are lovely and the vocal melody as a whole is just generally fun to sing along with.

“Vampires In Love” was instantly one of my favorite songs on the album because of its lyrics. “I’m a zombie. Convinced I have been since the age of twenty. I have no personality.” I really relate to those lyrics and I’m sure more than a few young adults do too. The beginning of this song is similar in style to “Alligator Bop.” I love the way all the instruments in the chorus follow the vocals the first time around, and I love the upbeat fills the second time. The title was a bit off-putting at first for me, because I am sick of vampires lately (Trueblood, Twilight, etc. etc.). Luckily the song doesn’t have much to do with vampires. There’s a small reference toward the end but that’s it. The harmonies really work on this song and the chorus is really fun.

“Great Fun” keeps up the high energy of the album and is another “where did my life go” type of song. The brilliance in this song is truly its lyrics and their commentary on changes in your perspective as you get older. Think of things you thought were fun when you were younger. And now? Working more hours, getting great insurance, full coverage at the dentist, getting new glasses? The song reminds me to have fun while I am still young. “Gonna play the lottery until I can get away, I’ll win just in time to retire and be too tired to do anything.” Despite the darker tone of the song, it’s really fun.

“Bring Back Breakfast” is pretty much an ode to cereal and another song about growing up and missing childhood. “Afternoon has become the new morning. The hours awake are spent as a zombie except for the few hours after coffee… I’m missing you so badly, you’d brighten up every meal. I’m missing you so badly, I’d eat you for every meal.” It’s another smooth, almost jazzy feeling song with impossibly low harmonies and a very laid back feeling.

“Race Car Driving” is a very smooth instrumental that comes at a perfect time. It’s almost an intermission. I love the guitar.

“Meet Me At The Mall, Bring You Swim Trunks” is such a great song. It’s got my favorite guitar on the album and has a very fun melody. The vocal pattern blows my mind. The way the vocals follow the guitar is perfect. It’s ¬got a lot of energy but it still has the laid back vibe that I feel throughout the album. It’s constantly stuck in my head and I never get tired of listening to it.

“I Will Gobble You Up” made me immediately fall in love with A Great Big Pile of Leaves. It was the first song I listened to on the album and it made me excited to listen to the rest, after several repeats of this track, of course. The guitar is fun and dancey, the song is upbeat, and if you don’t find yourself tapping your foot and swaying your head to this song, odds are there is something wrong with you. The vocals are smooth and low. I could only make out a few of the lyrics so it seemed like a love song. Finding out it was mostly about food was slightly disappointing until I got over it and it made the song even move fun. What can I say? These guys really seem to love food.

“Learn to Share” is my least favorite song on the album, and I normally skip it. The song itself isn’t bad, it just isn’t as awesome and upbeat as the rest of the album until the end of the song. By that time, I’ve skipped to the next track. The lyrics are a funny observation on seeing a spider, but it’s not enough to get me hooked on a song.

“Bicycles in Sleep Cycles” is another great song. It’s about something we’re almost all familiar with but don’t know what it is. That feeling of half of your brain being awake while your eyes are shut, your body is heavy and the rest of your brain is sleeping. “Caught in between awake and sleep.” I love the guitar…it’s beautiful, deep and has such a rich tone to it. The harmonies are slightly jarring, I don’t think they’re quite off key but they don’t work as well as I think they could have.

“A Few Screws Loose” is another great song (I’m starting to sense a pattern here.) In fact, it’s one of the best songs on the album. Upbeat, fun, has a great melody, and lyrics that a lot of young people can relate to. It’s another song that continues with the nostalgic theme, all about way back when. This song really highlights Pete Weiland’s unique Dr. Cox-esque ability to turn short words into polysyllabic words in order to fit the melody (Nowhere ends up being 6 syllables). Unlike on “Bicycles in Sleep Cycles,” the harmonies are absolutely perfect.

“Sleeping on the Train” is another instrumental that is again, very well placed. I love this song for the way it shows off Tucker Yaro’s smooth bass lines, which tend to be overshadowed on the songs where the guitar is the driving force.

“Moving in Slow” is a slow song that for some reason can do what “Learn to Share” fails to do: get my to listen. Maybe it’s because it’s the end of the album and I’m ready to be calmed down and listen, or maybe because while it is slow, it picks up its energy before the 25 second mark. It’s a beautiful song, and Yaro’s bass line is not overshadowed at all. It works very nicely with the drums to create some energy in the song while the guitar creates the calm mood of the song. “Moving in Slow” only gets better as the song goes on.

A Great Big Pile of Leaves is a band that you probably haven’t heard of, but definitely should. You can get their music for free…legally, and you should do it now before they explode and you’ll be hard pressed to find a show that isn’t sold out.