Pierceful Protest- The Latest by The Prolific Pierce Kingans

By Cole Young

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Pierce Kingan, this is like the 4th or 5th article I’ve written about his work, I’ve actually lost track. Most artists in the city don't even have enough projects to warrant that many articles and I’ve barely scratched the surface of his catalogue. The guy pumps out EPs at a rate that rivals Daniel Romano and he has the massive disadvantage of needing to actually work a job at the same time. 

Especially when you include his work with The Prettys he’s made a big handful of my favourite albums to ever come out of Vancouver, all of which I listen to regularly. I still remember being in complete awe my first time seeing the music video for Nothing’s Wrong (with Me). It’s such a simple music video but it’s so captivating and you can just tell that he’s got that thing that makes him - for lack of a better term - a star. That’s probably why although he only sings 2 of 10 songs on that album, they’ve both got music videos.

Now, onto the EP I meant to be reviewing, Pierceful Protest. Like many amazing pieces of music, on my first couple listens it wasn’t really grasping me. Now, I listened to it while I was cooking and working on other stuff at the time and these are  great environments for other classic Pierce projects that I’m already familiar with, however, with this project it wasn’t allowing me to pick up on the subtle quirks of these songs. 

 This is as true now as it’s ever been: First impressions of a collection of songs don’t mean shit.

 I hated some of my now all-time favourite albums on my first few listens. Although no this isn’t one of my all-time favourite albums - not yet at least - the more I listen to it, the more I love it. With every listen I catch more lyrics, more quiet piano licks and I become more connected to each song. Pierce’s words are often the type to resonate more and more with every visit and this is certainly the case on Pierceful Protest. 

His classic brutal honesty being most notable on Thinking About Someone Else. The line “Last night I was thinking about someone else while we were in each other’s mouths I pulled out when I was done” is spread out to make an entire verse. Because you get so much time with each segment of this line you get to paint a picture while you work through it. 

It starts off nice and casual, “Last night I was thinking about someone else”, it's relatable, who hasn’t lied there at night thinking of someone they miss, it then slowly turns graphic. “We were in each other’s mouths” paints a strong visual of two people really sucking face and is then followed by “I pulled out when I was done”. At this point the chorus quickly repeats the line “Thinking about someone else” and you’re swept away into the power of the harmonies and forced to feel the pain of missing someone you love. Now, as you listen to the song again you know what’s coming and you start to realize, these two aren’t shoving their tongues in each other’s mouths, this is actually more R rated than the mind initially allowed. Then you're quickly swallowed by the chorus in which you have no choice but to long for the one you’re no longer with again. I can’t really think of a time where a song goes from sexually explicit to emotionally captivating as quickly as that and you don’t even notice it at first glance. 

Pierceful Protest is another really solid release, it fits his classic classification of weird bedroom pop from which he deviates from on certain EPs such as Nobel Pierce Prize, Pierce of Cake and Four Seasons. It’s a great album to sit down and enjoy a hot beverage and stare out the window with. With the standard four songs, it’s compact and digestible so you can easily run through it a couple of times in a row. I highly recommend giving it a listen or two, or ten.