In Pursuit Of Something Interesting: Paperilo

Deep diving into places like Bandcamp, Soundcloud, NoiseTrade or the discount bin at your local record store is something that music nerds have done at some point in their lives. We are grabbed by an album cover or a song title, and we hope that music will be something like images that drew us in. In Pursuit Of Something Interesting is going to be a weekly piece that will help you dig through the endless sea of music. We all want to find something new. Whether that is exposure to music we haven't been able to understand, or a record that excites us the way your first album purchase did. The best case scenario is that we find some cool, undiscovered music. What will probably happen is we will wade through a swamp of weird music that should stay undiscovered.

Each week I will find a random album, EP, or single (basically something with two or more songs) from an artist I do not know, listen to it, and review it for you. The music will be from all different genres and the picking will be left up to the gods of chance! What that really means is that I'll be rolling dice to pick the music of the week.

For the inaugural piece, I decided to look into something local (Minneapolis) music. After consulting the tea leaves, I was left with the band Paperilo's Vol. IV. The band seems to be relatively new and has been steadily releasing singles since September of 2017. Using your deducing powers, you can probably guess that Vol. IV is the fourth single released by the band. The two songs contained in this single are a bit of a head-scratcher. The song "Edgewood" is the side A of the single. The song is an upbeat indie rock song.  It could fit in with songs written by bands like Bully or Fury Things. "Edgewood" is lo-fi yet catchy, and the song deals with unrequited love. The verses build to a chorus where the vocalist declares he wants to be more than just friends.

The side B of Vol. IV is titled "Lakehouse." The song is a definite change of pace from side A. It is produced much cleaner and follows more of an indie pop format. "Lakehouse" is almost a retrospective answer to the first song. The opening lyrics to the song are "She said that when it's over, it's over/I never want to see you again." I'm unclear if the lyricist is writing about a new person or if they are looking back over the relationship that served as the synthesis for "Edgewood."

The format of a "heavy" side A and a "soft" side B is can be found on all the singles released by Paperilo so far. Which feels like a odd mix. It is almost like the band is still trying to figuring out their sound. However, if they plan on releasing EP's where they compile the "heavy" songs on one EP and the "soft" songs on another that could be interesting, or Paperilo could even release a full length where the pop songs are one and half and the heavy songs make up the other. Both songs are strong enough to stand on their own, and I definitely recommend giving Vol. IV a listen. "Edgewood" and "Lakehouse" just seem to be a weird match.

Tracklist:
1. Edgewood
2. Lakehouse

Listen to Vol. IV by Paperilo for yourself and let us know what you think.