The Pavilion EP Review - Faces In The Crowd

On the 29th of August, indie band "The Pavilion" released new Ep titled "Faces in the crowd". The Pavilion are an alt-indie rock band based in Bristol, who recently were revitalised with a fresh line-up. The band are lead by front man Rhys Smedley, with guitarist Iwan Morris, bassist Daniel O'Conner and drummer Joshua Vallis.

Previously, I had never heard the bands music - and to say I was impressed is a huge understatement. By the first song, "tomorrow is dead", I was hooked entirely.

Tomorrow Is Dead reminded me of early Modern Baseball music, the guitar riffs and slow build of the song is reminiscent of some tracks on "Sports". I think this is the perfect introduction to the EP. it tells the listener what to expect, and sets a very high bar. in particular, I really liked how there is no drums until quite far into the song.

The second track, Against the tide, continues to represent the talent of the band. Rhys's vocals are incredible, and flow beautifully alongside the music. The repetitive drum beat something I noticed a lot - in a good way. And, the lack of drums at points emphasise the pre chorus in great ways. I've noticed that Pavilion often play with drums, taking them away or making them louder for effect and I think it works wonderfully for them. This song particularly reminded me of Catfish and the Bottlemen, one of the bands inspirations.

Normal Folks is the third track in the EP, straight away noticeably more of a melancholy vibe than the rest of the songs. Once again I'm compelled to point out how Rhys vocals and Iwan's guitar seem to match each other. I think most of the songs carry a similar vibe to them and can be a bit repetitive, for me this is more of a positive than a negative as I think they have found their style and ran with it. This song is very similar to the Midwest Emo genre to me.

Lonely Winter starts off slow, with a haunting guitar riff playing repeatedly over the filtered vocals. I love how they've done the intro to this song, and the show build staring at around a minuet in and gradually adding more instruments over the span of a minuet. the second half of this song is a different vibe completely, this is where their overpass inspiration really starts to shine through for me. I love this song, I think it perfectly encapsulates the feeling of being alone in the darkness of winter months. very excited to relisten while I'm in the trenches of deep November/December.

Lonely Winter fades seamlessly into the last song in the EP, Pass time. the transition caught be so off guard I remember writing frantically in my notes app "HOLY PEAK" 3 times. That's my online note on this song, I absolutely adore it. One of my favourite things about this collection of songs is that the vocals and instruments work as one, whereas you find a lot of songs have them be separate/not really matching. I don't think I'm explaining myself very well...you know what I mean. The pauses in instruments while the singing gets more intense is just...literally beautiful.

Often in my reviews, I try to find negative things to comment on so I seem balanced but I find myself genuinely struggling with this one. the only thing that comes to mind is repetitiveness - though, not an issue for me as I love the style of music and can listen to it all day, some people unfamiliar with this branch of indie might find the songs too similar.

One thing I didn't really point out in the individual tracks is the lyrics, but I have to mention them here. they fit the songs so well, and the way they manage to describe things perfectly frames the emotions they're attempting to capture. I think everything in this ep is done so so well.

I'm obsessed with this EP right now, and very glad I've had the opportunity to find out about them. ill say for sure, I am incredibly excited to see what comes next and will defiantly be keeping an eye out for upcoming tour dates.

Cheers!

Eloise.