Pessimism Strikes You Cold: Sandpit

Try telling that to Sandpit. They've completely redefined their sound on their debut longplayer, on second thought. It starts off with the most gorgeous single released in the latter half of 1997 (it ranked along with Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" and the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" for single of the year in my book), "Along The Moors". It's perfect pop, starting off nice and slow, before kicking in with the fuzzed up guitars. It's a great way to start.

"Metamorphosis" is probably the mellowest track on the record. It's got a very "warm" feel to it, which most likely has something to do with the fact that Sandpit again chose to use an analogue recording desk with on second thought, and it definitely enhances the recording.

"Hold Yr Horses" is a great pop song, with a catchy guitar line, a catchy hook line ("You wanna know/You really wanna know/Just how it feels/To feel so low"), lines about carrots dangling on a string two feet in front of your nose. It could almost allude to never being able to reach your goals, no matter how hard you reach. It's one of my favourite tracks on the record. It too has a warm feeling to it, and I guess that has something to do with the analogue desk at Hot House (the studio in Melbourne where they recorded it) as well.

It a shame that "Helicopters" will never be released as a single, as it is instantaneously catchy, and, if released, could have found itself imbedded upon the Triple J playlist. It's also the first track where I've ever actually been able to hear Stephanie (Ashworth - bass) sing backing vocals, during the chorus. Along with "Greater Expectations" it's probably the most easily accessible track, and I wish that Sandpit would reconsider and release it as a single, as I think it's a great track that deserves it's own release. It also has the "indie patented slow down towards the end" thing happening.

I'd never heard Brendan (Webb - guitar and vox) swear before hearing "I Positively Hate You Now", with the cheery lines "You can fuck me over anytime". It's a slow-ish song, and Brendan's vocals are very up-front in this song, and he is very easy to understand, something that couldn't be said about him when they released their debut EP, lessons in posture. It has a catchy hook line (the title), which just makes you want to sing along.

"Whole Again" doesn't contain many words, but the few at the start that it does have are on a similar vein to the other songs - in this case, wanting to be able to feel complete, and if not completely, then at least slightly or "kind of whole again". The guitar line is very pretty and carries the song, as does the gentle drumming by Greg (Wales, who, along with Matt Maddock, also produced the album). Violin also enhances the sound towards the end of this number, which, apart from the opening lines, is effectively an instrumental.

I get the giggles every time I hear the next track. "Greater Expectations" is super catchy, which is in no small amount due to Brendan's falsetto prowess (yup, that's what makes me giggle). It's "perfect pop", and it deserves to be "thrashed" on every alternative radio station around Australia. It will never "cross over", but I don't think that that's what the band really wants.

"D.I./Eclipse" is the best Tortoise song that Tortoise have never written. It also has a sonic blast at the end, which, according to Stephanie, is there to "wake up anyone who has fallen asleep". Why anyone would fall asleep when listening to on second thought is beyond me, but…you never know.

"Walk In A Straight Line" also, along with "Greater Expectations", contains Brendan singing in falsetto. It's another "perfect pop" song, much in the style of Built to Spill and Pavement, whilst still managing to have it's own unique sound.

"Crepe-Paper Fortress" has mellow moments, and fuzz moments, and it rounds out the album nicely. With a line like "Moving on/Moving right along", it could only come at the finish of the record, and I think it's a great track to finish with.

The best thing about on second thought is that it flows seamlessly from one track to the next. Whilst it's closer in style to their The Tyranny of Creeps EP than lessons in posture, it definitely has elements of both, along with a mellower sound, to tide over both early fans and more recent converts. I definitely recommend hunting it down, and even though it clocks in at ten tracks at just under forty minutes, it's a pearler of an album, and one which has been stuck in permanent rotation on my CD player since I got it.

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