Ermest Bridge — Pilot Light

Seattle band Ernest Bridge has a modest following, including 548 friends on its MySpace music page. Maybe the group sounds better in concert or I just don’t understand the appeal of repetitive, wailed lyrics over a mediocre background, but I am not impressed by the band’s debut album, Pilot Light.

What I can glean from a blog entry is that the band’s name combines the first name of Ernest Hemingway and the setting in his short story Old Man at the Bridge.

If Ernest Bridge possessed half the sincere melancholy or eloquence of Ernest Hemmingway, the name would be fitting and the music bearable. Unfortunately, the lyrics are trite, the score mundane and the vocals otherwise average at most.

The band lists influences like Radiohead, The Cure, Fugazi and even some metal. Rather than integrating this genres into a new, comprehensive sound, some tracks hint at Tom Yorke, others venture into the realm of synth-pop and most don’t sound like anything distinctive at all.

The opening track, “Thousand Cranes For An Angel,” is a touching piece about a broken relationship, but that doesn’t justify the overly done “I love you” whined at top volume at the end of the song.

Track four, “Bella,” starts out with a nice, slow guitar. But between uncoordinated melodic solos are the corniest lyrics Pilot Light has to offer.

“Holed up at St. Teresa’s counting the last hours of life / In a sick bed he cried out one more sorry line. … In a light blue gown his father passed away / They closed his eyes and turned off all the machines / Bella thought now that nothing is all he can see.”

Compounding this melodrama is the music video to the next song, “Bereavement Street,” which is an uncut show of the band performing the song live in-studio, complete with lyric sheet in hand and an iTunes visual playing in the background.

The band praises song “Druid’s Glen” on their Web site as an “enchanting seven-minute-plus sound collage.” It’s more like an epic reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s Lord of the Rings references, minus the cover of true rock and talent.

All that said, I would like to mention my favorite track — the last one. “Vivace Mysterioso” is something of a bonus track. It starts with a gruff question “Who let the dogs out?” and quickly evolves into what I believe is a combo of Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People” riff and vocals ripped off an older Ozzy Osbourne song.

This track almost redeems Pilot Light strictly in entertainment value, but the first eight tracks are just boring enough to negate any amusement gained in listening to the three-minute medley.