Project Description

Pipe-eye – Laugh About Life (Album Review)

Imagine if Paul McCartney had a bad acid trip while recording one of his solo albums, but while he descended into a warped reality, he could still play music proficiently and greatly. Have you imagined that yet? Well there’s a good chance that what you’re thinking might be a bit like Pipe-eye’s Laugh About Life. And I mean that very positively.

Laugh About Life is the first full length album to be released by Cook Craig under his solo recording alias, Pipe-eye. Following up his 2015 EP, Cosmic Blip, Laugh About Life takes a look at the simple things in life but under a very warped and wavy microscope.

If you aren’t already aware, Cook Craig is one of the guitarists for King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. The album contains the same iconic production aesthetics that fans of King Gizzard and other Flightless Records artists are familiar with, but still presents a unique venture that feels fresh.

The album is divided into several “acts” which each signify a separate movement within the album. It’s structured pretty similarly to Cosmic Blip in that it has interludes of experimental pieces of sound that you wish lasted a little longer. Each act (except for Act V) is followed by two tracks that keep the same pace set by the predecessor. The pace of the album speeds up and slows down in the same warped nature of the guitar pedals and synthesizers contained within. The production of the album is also very reminiscent of 60s & 70s pop-rock. Everything from the click bass guitar style that fuelled those years, straight down to the album cover are found here in a nostalgic ode to that era of music.

A standout element of the album are the lyrics that Cook Craig has penned, which draw on similar themes as what the likes of Lennon & McCartney did in their prominent years. Craig exchanges yellow submarines for old tug boats and new speed boats, and also temporary secretaries for bankers and clerks. Some words penned are sweet and endearing such as Sweets & Treats. Other tracks are somewhat humorously morbid though such as the words in Some Are Bankers, Some Are Clerks.

“People on their way to work
Some are bankers some are clerks
All have simple little lives
They’re all sad and they all hate their wives”

Underneath all people’s smiles
Underlying sense of guile
Back and forth we throw ourselves
To not read books and dust our shelves”

Where Cosmic Blip felt like a bunch of songs that were recorded with no relation to each other, Laugh About Life improves upon that by having consistent production techniques and ideas that are relative to one another. It’s a bit of a roller-coaster that will have you feeling warped and stretched by the end, but you’ll want to take that ride again. Laugh About Life is fun and adventurous, a record that you definitely should put on when you’re in a “lets get weird” mood.

 

AMNPLIFY – DB

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