Burning Airlines - Identikit - LP

Some bands disappear far too soon, and Burning Airlines will always feel like one of them. “Identikit,” their second and final album, finds Jay Robbins’s band at the height of their powers, refining everything that made “Mission: Control!” so special and expanding their sonic palette even further.

Jawbox’s influence is still clear, but here the songs breathe more freely. Post-hardcore, indie rock, and power pop coexist naturally in a collection of tracks where sharp guitars and angular rhythms combine with some of the best melodies Robbins has written in his entire career. Songs like “Light Pours Out of Me,” “The Surgeon’s House,” and “A Song with No Words” show a band capable of sounding complex and accessible at the same time.

Listening to “Identikit” today, it still conveys that special feeling of a band evolving at a rapid pace and with plenty of road still ahead. An unjustly overlooked gem of the Washington, D.C. scene, somewhere between Jawbox, Fugazi, Superchunk, and the best alternative rock of the late nineties.

One of those albums that never got the recognition it deserved, but that those who discover it tend to keep among their favorites forever.