Three Mile Pilot

It's been 11 years since San Diego, CA's Three Mile Pilot have released an album. So why does The Inevitable Past is the Future Forgotten (the band's fourth LP) so easily pick up where they left off? Perhaps it's because vocalist/bassist Zach Smith has spent the last decade honing his skill as one-half of indie stalwarts Pinback. The buoyant rhythms of "Still Alive" and choppy waves of "Left in Vain" show Three Mile Pilot purely tossing a coat of primer on top of their former incarnation, while songs like "The Threshold" and "Planets" rely on anthemic energy and brute force in places where they used to get by on panache and gauntness. The new version of Three Mile Pilot sound sharper, glossier, more Victorian and less adventurous. But mostly, the release comes off much like the last Pinback album, leaving The Inevitable Past is the Future Forgotten as the most fitting, or ironic, record title of the year.