Piebald

Like Saves the Day and the Get Up Kids before them, Boston's Piebald have sufficiently changed their sound to the point where they can no longer be considered part of the emo movement they helped create. Utilising legendary Beantown alt-rock producer Paul Q. Kolderie, adding keyboards and smoothing the punk rock edge that they once possessed, the quartet is definitely heading in a direction that could confuse, frighten and repulse long-time fans who don't quite know what to make of the new songs or what to do with them — especially mellower numbers like the Faces-tinged "Haven't Tried It” and "Put Your Slippers On Instead.” For those that don't get it, that's their loss because while the band's fourth album is a departure, it's a change that comes for the better. Bands that don't progress and musically develop run the risk of becoming stale and irrelevant. If Piebald keeps this up, there's no danger of that happening to them.