When is it a good time to eschew a genre name?

This was the first question brought to mind upon my first listen to Congratulations on Your Decision to Become a Pilot's self-titled debut. The promo sheet was of virtually no help in trying to discern the style of the album so that I might place it properly in my review schedule (these tiny details occupy as much of my non-serious thinking time as does sex with most males my age. I keep telling myself that I'm the normal one). According to the press release, I was to expect a "big sound," "complex structures," and "terrific melodies." Well, thanks, guys; I guess it's not Kraftwerk.

Looking at the album art (a solid-color print of a guy screaming with wings coming out of his head, I expected post-rock to make even John McEntire blush. So why, instead, is this band intensely emo?

Scratch that. They're intensely emotional, but actually flout many of the established cliches of emo (you actually couldn't apply Brent DiCrescenzo's "Make Your Own Emo Band" formula here), while maintaining many of the aesthetic sensibilities. The lead singer screams, but actually hits the notes; the guitars still boast that Fender Jaguar chimy quality, but don't arpeggiate constantly or bend notes irritatingly; the drummer keeps the hi-hat wide open, but never fumbles through odd time signatures. Folks, I think we have a winner here: The Best New Emo Band of 2000.

Do I make that assertion lightly? Perhaps. I haven't exactly been scouring the local record stores for all the emo records I could possibly find, but reports from fellow music enthusiasts on the Pitchfork tell me that there are a (very) few good, and mostly established bands floating on a sea of crap. Congratulations understand that, to make a name for themselves, they might have to differentiate themselves from the mediocrity by which they're surrounded.

The promised complex song structures are definitely all there, but careful attention has been paid to making all the discrete parts fit together in a way that, like Sunny Day Real Estate's LP2, calls to mind miniature chamber pieces for rock trios and quartets. "When We Were Kids We Built a Treehouse From Our Neighbors' Windows and If You Get Far Enough Away It Looks like an Eyeball" (okay, so the lengthy song titles could be flushed) flits from driving, uplifting emo-prog bombast to a short, quiet odd-time interlude, to a stop-start octave riff coda like a hummingbird on a mission.

"Sgt. Carter" barks out hotly distorted vocal commands until his insecurities are writ small on the wall by a bed of independently strummed guitars. They "Decide to Stay" in a room with lounge-jazz acousticism and major-7th chords, but find "Charity Creeping around Upstairs (pg. 265)" with the specter of '80s King Crimson, a composed typewriter part, and a spring-reverb amplifier dropped on the floor.

Congratulations get all anthemic on us with "The Shells," an exercise in making angular syncopation groove and the audience sing along. "Why You Should Read Books That Don't Exist" (which begins in a more traditional pop-punk mode, but moves back to emo territory by way of an absolutely starry-eyed, harmonized transition) is bookended by two more novelty instrumentals; "Room to Swing a Cat" blends chiming voices with chiming bells, while "Polkadot Dress" brings looped vocals, harmonium, and sine waves to the already crowded table. "Orange Impossible" (featuring, admittedly, somewhat tuneless clarinet interjections) and the band's title song pound out in epic fashion, leaving this reviewer with an actual desire to hear this album again after he no longer has to.

In other words: potential greatness. For a band that only formed in August of 1999 and has already experienced a lineup change, this is some pretty impressive material. Most other groups don't get this much right by their third album. The rough spots are almost like freckles on the cheek of a sexy lady; they might be funny-looking, but they only serve to emphasize the attraction of the entire package. Regardless of nomenclature or classification, Congratulations on Your Decision to Become a Pilot won't change peoples' minds about "the whole emo thing" yet, but in a couple of years' time, they just might.

-Craig Griffith