Please Believe It

Album review

Few releases from 2003, and virtually none from high-profile acts, come anywhere near the mix of passion and originality achieved on Please Believe It. The production is raw and the instrumentation mercilessly spare, but by overlaying contradictory elements -- punk intensity and prog complexity, thrashing beats and dispassionate vocals that track extraordinarily elusive melodies -- the Helicopters score one bull's-eye after another. Elaborate structures challenge the band to play with precision and without losing any momentum; time and again they pull this off, sometimes by inserting intense episodes amidst the tumble of chords and fragmented rhythms, as in the single-note guitar squall that crops up suddenly in "Mic My Mind." But it's not just the writing that distinguishes these efforts; without the right chops, most bands would be stranded within these stark textures and contrapuntal tangles. Cory Race deserves particular credit for pumping energy through the elaborate channels mapped in these tracks; you won't find more awesome drumming in the modern rock catalog than what he does on "Delta 88." Critics have compared the Helicopters to a bewildering array of recent bands, but to really grasp Please Believe It you need to go all the way back to acts like Gentle Giant; only then will you have a context vast and deep enough to appreciate what these lo-fi phenoms have accomplished.
© Robert L. Doerschuk /TiVo