Caught By the Window [Import]

Pilate | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 8, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal Music Can
• ASIN: B0000CO14V
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,594 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Endgame

2. Melt Into the Walls

3. Into Your Hideout

4. Mercy

5. Fall Down

6. Don't Wast Your Breath

7. Collide

8. Perfect Thrill

9. Alright

10. Overrated

11. The Travel Song

12. Out on My Feet

13. A Reprise

Editorial Reviews

Includes bonus track. Canyon. 2005. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best album of the past decade. Period., November 23, 2004

By 

Jeremy Selweski (Clinton Township, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Caught By the Window (Audio CD)

I have been a huge music fan nearly my whole life. I own over 800 CD's, and I've played guitar for over 9 years. I've worked at a music store as a guitar instructor for the past 3 years. Literally all I do is listen to music, play my guitar, and read music magazines and websites. I am an obseessed music junkie. And now I am journalism major at school and hoping to one day become a music critic.
Recently I had an assignment to write a review of any kind, and without hesitation I chose to write an album review of "Caught By The Window." Why? Because quite frankly, it is one of the greatest albums I've ever heard. And believe me, I don't toss that phrase around lightly. I am saying this from the perspective of a guy whose record collection spans all different subgenres of rock and roll from the '50s all the way through to today, as well as all sorts of old blues, jazz, R&B, reggae, folk, classical, you name it.
So anyway, here is the review that I wrote:


Pilate is the best British rock band to emerge in over a decade. But here's the real kicker: they're from Canada.
Huh?
That's right. Pilate's sound bears such a striking resemblance to Brit-pop mainstays like Radiohead, Coldplay, The Stone Roses, and The Verve that it's easy to picture them slugging it out on London's cutthroat music scene. In reality, the four-piece group has slowly amassed a small but dedicated following by playing gigs in their hometown of Toronto and various cities all over Canada and the northern U.S.
Combining all the best elements of the aforementioned bands as well as Irish legends U2, Pilate's debut album, Caught By The Window, is a bona fide masterpiece. It somehow manages to encompass the aural majesty of Radiohead, the lyrical detail of Coldplay, and the intense anthemic power of U2 without sounding derivative or unoriginal. Caught By The Window is an inspired collection of emotionally charged songs that finds Pilate trimming away the fat that plagues many of their Brit-pop contemporaries without sacrificing an ounce of complexity or depth.
The band - which consists of vocalist/guitarist/pianist Todd Clark, guitarist Chris Greenough, bassist Ruby Bumrah, and drummer Bill Keeley - has an extraordinary ability to cut directly to a song's emotional core, rather than diverting your attention with experimental noise collages or bizarre, arty interludes. Each tune is so well-crafted because it strips away any unnecessary components that would detract from its emotional impact. In essence, Pilate writes great pop songs with great hooks.
This is a group that truly understands the importance of dynamics and subtlety. Better than any band in recent memory, Pilate is able to shift seamlessly from delicate, near-whisper passages to explosive choruses that envelope your entire body like a warm blanket. They also know instinctively when not to play in order to leave breathing room for Clark's vocals, often to dramatic effect. Bumrah and Keeley favor relaxed, laid-back grooves, but they have no problem turning up the volume and letting the songs soar. Greenough's guitar playing adds depth and texture to Pilate's sound. He has a knack for writing gorgeous, instantly memorable melodies that float effortlessly through the fabric of the music.
Even with their undeniable skill as musicians, what truly separates Pilate from other bands is Clark's startling talent as a singer. With a passionate voice that often hints at the styles of Thom Yorke, Bono, and the incomparable Jeff Buckley, the New Zealand-born Clark consistently cuts deep with his sincerity and depth of expression. The similarities to Buckley are especially impressive. Clark is possibly the only vocalist to ever match the angelic falsetto that Buckley made his trademark a decade ago, without ever directly copying the singer's technique. The band's effortless sense of dynamics is due in large part to Clark's uncanny ability to push and pull the music with his voice, which breathes an astonishing amount of life and profundity into already terrific songs. He can be tender and poignant at one moment and then build to a rousing, energetic wail without ever sounding strained. Clark's lyrics are generally melancholy and thoughtful, exploring the murky depths of topics such as loneliness, depression, and heartbreak. But rather than wallowing in self-pity, his words also offer hope and redemption, seeking comfort in the cathartic beauty of the music.
Caught By The Window opens with "Endgame," an earnest piano meditation that sets the introspective tone of the album. The song's theme is later revisited on the album's final cut, "A Reprise," which takes the elegant framework of "Endgame" and lets it grow into a beautifully chaotic squall of roaring drums, guitar, voice, and piano. The music swirls into a tumultuous climax before crashing down abruptly and vanishing into the air. These two songs unify Caught By The Window in a way that gives it a feeling of completing a musical cycle.
On the more upbeat numbers, such as "Melt Into The Walls," "Overrated," and "Perfect Thrill," Pilate burst out of the speakers with catchy hooks and rock and roll energy while still maintaining a reflective mood. Nowhere is this balance more evident than on the spectacular "Into Your Hideout," in which a driving guitar riff and pounding drums propel Clark's vocals to stratospheric heights. During the song's middle interlude, the band suddenly shifts to a more somber backdrop, building emotional tension before swelling to an impassioned crescendo in which Clark sings "Gray shadows and white meadows/A bitter snow is falling/My legs fail me/The ground hails me/The distant lights are calling/Into your hideout."
"Out On My Feet" features clever use of a children's choir that recalls Pink Floyd's classic 1979 hit, "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)." After Clark's initial verse, the choir joins him in declaring, "I'm out on my feet again/Is this love lost or found?" and later accompanies the biting refrain of "I'm not sorry/I'm not sorry now." The sense of resentment is then brought to full fruition as the band kicks into the album's most ferocious guitar break. Greenough is given room to shine with an aggressive and heartfelt solo that is one of the Caught By The Window's many highlights.
Elsewhere, Pilate adeptly undertake wistful, acoustic-based ballads that confront loneliness with a mixture of solemn contemplation and bitter defiance. "Don't Waste Your Breath," "The Travel Song," "Mercy," and especially the epic "Alright" all search for solace from an unsympathetic world. The latter cut begins as a delicate, pensive expression of solitude, but later explodes into a colossal wall of guitars overflowing with enough gorgeous melodies to drive away any amount of pain and sadness.
Even among all these incredible songs, the centerpiece of Caught By The Window has to be "Fall Down" and "Collide," two of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music that you will ever hear. Both are exceptionally powerful cuts, but "Collide" is truly Pilate's shining moment. Over a fragile acoustic landscape, Greenough enters with a stirring slide guitar line that echoes that of Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You." Clark delivers his most intense and touching vocal performance, beginning barely above a whisper before stretching out and exploring the upper register of his soulful falsetto. When Clark sings "And though your lips pursue me/In the shadow of your eyes/Love and fear collide," you can literally feel his heart breaking.
The most amazing thing about Pilate is that despite all their similarities to other established and respected bands, they manage to establish their own identity on their remarkable debut album. This is no small feat, and hopefully music fans will take notice.
Caught By The Window is, in short, the greatest album in its genre since Radiohead's milestone 1995 release, The Bends, and one of the best recordings of any kind in the past decade.
Not bad for a little band from Canada.


GRADE: 5 stars (out of a possible 5)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Way to good not to take a listen, February 20, 2005

By 

Libre007 (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Caught By the Window (Audio CD)

I randomly came a cross the, travel song. I was sold in second.. I cant believe these guys arent bigger..EVERYTIME I play this cd in my car...People always ask...Wow who is this? it sounds like Bono only a lot better...Hehehhe. Just buy it. Its GOOOOOOOOD!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST record I've bought in years, April 17, 2005

By 

Carrie M. Hays "Fragile Icarian" (Northern NY (think almost Canada) USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Caught By the Window (Audio CD)

I'm a picky listener. I've fallen out of the music scene in the last few years, and now have a very hard time finding anything new that I actually want to pay for. Well this is it! I bought this CD in Ottawa after hearing Hideaway. I can't get enough of it!!!
Even my boyfriend who hates most of my music likes this album. I love EVERY song. They are all different, and all of them grab you, and don't let go. Its soft, and harmonic, but has the emotional power to hold on.
Go to www.pilate.com Their discography has samples of all songs.