Papa M – Highway Songs – Album Review by Killian Laher

Highway Songs is the first album released by David Pajo since his suicide attempt a few years ago. Resurrecting the Papa M name, this album moves away from the moody, spidery instrumental material of previous Papa M albums. This very short (27 minute), mostly instrumental album is kind of all over the place, it starts out with the heavy, sludge-metal of Flatliners. Heavier than anything former band Slint put out, it riffs, crashes and rumbles with no particular direction in mind. Following track, The Love Particle is even stranger, it consists of what appears to be random electronic bleeps and little else for nearly three minutes. Adore, A Jar at least incorporates similar electronics into something approaching a kind of melody, blending the glitchy bleeps with clean electric guitar lines.

DLVD provides a total change in mood, a blissful, meandering acoustic instrumental. After the brief Coda, the strongest track follows, the strutting guitar instrumental Walking on Coronado. It’s the track closest to what Pajo is known for and it’s a pity we didn’t get a whole album of this. Instead we get more instrumental heavy metal in the shape of Green Holler and Bloom. The album finishes with the only vocal track, Little Girl, which is an unfortunate power rock ballad which bears all the hallmarks of the worst excesses of, of all things, Aerosmith, complete with ‘widdling’ hair metal guitar solo.

What it all means is anyone’s guess. It’s not a weird album with hidden depths to be delved into, it’s just a really strange album. For true fans only.

Track List:

1. Flatliners
2. The Love Particle
3. Adore, A Jar
4. DLVD
5. Coda
6. Walking on Coronado
7. Green Holler
8. Bloom
9. Little Girl

Bloom: