Pela

Pela's debut, Anytown Graffiti, qualifies as a Serious Rock Record. From the first song, "Waiting on the Stairs," one gets the sense that when the band members plug their instruments in, they're intent on making you feel something—anything. This isn't a record they made to satisfy the why-not urge, just some guys hanging out in a garage jamming. These four boys from Brooklyn were focused on eliciting a response and filling arenas.

Whether it's the vibrating echo of the reverb pedal, the ominous underwire of the leaden bass, or the propulsive gallop of the drums, tracks like "Tenement Teeth" and "Lost to the Lonesome" are at once passionate and angsty. At the forefront, Billy McCarthy's high notes reach the same strained imperfections of Brandon Flowers' (the Killers), but McCarthy's not singing, "you've got a fragile face in a public place" to bed girls. He's singing because, well, he's wounded.

Overall, Pela's hardy aesthetic suggests an unlikely compromise between the sloppy fury of the Walkmen and the soaring earnestness of Coldplay. When the group closes its record with a lone acoustic guitar and the sound of children playing in the background on "7th and 17th," the volume's turned down but the band remains potent.

- Arye Dworken
04.26.07

Although indie rock band Pela hails from Brooklyn, the group sounds a lot more like Brits Bloc Party, Coldplay, or the Futureheads than any of the precious and/or dancey indie pop that has been populating that particular borough's sound as of late. Singer Billy McCarthy yelps as well as Kele Okereke when he wants to, nearly unintelligible on "Waiting on the Stairs," the opening track of Pela's full-length debut, Anytown Graffiti, but he can also find the sweeter, almost crooned notes on songs like "Your Desert's Not a Desert at All" when he needs to, showing the band's versatility and individuality. Because don't think that the album's simply a knockoff or re-creation of recent trends. Pela has enough of their own sound going -- lush guitars, even in the sparser, more angular songs, a little Bruce Springsteen influence, a little Interpol, and plenty of sweeping melodies and pounding drums -- to distinguish them as something unique, and something worth hearing. The pieces on the album certainly do resemble one another -- Pela has a formula, a vision, and they stick to it -- but instead of making Anytown Graffiti seem predictable or derivative, this consistency gives an element of depth and wholeness to it, like it's a complete piece, a fully explained thought, instead of just a collection of separate ideas. The songs, while not overtly catchy in their own right, work together to make something that lasts, something that sticks, something you want to hear again and again. It's not groundbreaking work but it's good, and the kind of thing that stays around with you when you're done with it, even if you can't exactly remember why. Anytown Graffiti's not a perfect record -- mostly because frequently McCarthy tries to fit too many syllables in his lines, and often the verses and chorus, intra- and inter-song, can sound very similar -- but it's a great first effort, a satisfying listen, and a successful accomplishment overall. ~ Marisa Brown, All Music Guide