by Jonathan Bannister (@j_utah)
Pivot Foot is the new release from Philly’s Left & Right. It’s been a couple years since they put out the rock solid Five Year Plan and the new EP leaves you instantly wanting more. It’s a soundtrack to late night epiphanies had on the back porch after a night of too many drinks and too many restless years where dreams were never had much less attempted. The riffs representing the sounds our souls make, the lyrics our world weary guide to these run down realities.
The album feels sequenced as a night out in reverse order. After an instrumental opening "Next Winter" shows up isolated and chilled. This would be the track to end the evening. The tired vocal tone painting us a picture of a lonely existence at a lonely lighthouse. You wish the song was twice as long, that the verses went for eight bars instead of four. It’s a song that feels broken in, well lived. "Ladder Guy" meanwhile is the song that accompanies you to the bar after a hard day of doing nothing at all. The sound of promise before too many shots followed by beer chasers.
It’s all over before you know it. “Is any of that cool?” asked to the engineer, to us. You can feel the band’s motto of “Get in the van, make friends, repeat.” on these songs. The miles they’ve put on that van hang off the tracks. Play it on repeat as you cruise down that back highway, the trees blurring by.