Pilot - Two's A Crowd (Reissue) (1977/2005)

Pilot had lost half of their members by the time they recorded the ironically titled Two's a Crowd in 1977. The remaining duo of David Paton and Ian Bairnson enlisted the help of Alan Parsons and various session musicians to make this, Pilot's fourth and rarest album. Long out of print, Two's a Crowd was reissued in 2005 as a limited-edition CD in Japan after apparently winning a poll of Japanese music buyers. If true, that startling development took no one by surprise more than the bandmembers themselves, who re-recorded most of the songs for a 2002 comeback album titled Blue Yonder because Paton and Bairnson didn't think the original album would ever see the light of day again. Despite the obscurity of Two's a Crowd (it produced no hits and has had none of its cuts appear on the various Pilot anthologies), the album is well worth the attention. It's a classic Pilot album through and through, comparable in sound and execution to the group's previous three albums. The would-be hit single, "Get Up and Go," is a catchy, jangly pop song in the vein of the band's earlier hit "Just a Smile," and "Library Door" may be Paton's prettiest ballad. "Monday Tuesday" is the sort of light pop Paul McCartney produced in the '70s, but other songs retain some of Morin Heights' harder edges. Fans who balk at the $25-$40 import price tag can take comfort in the knowledge that its price will only increase on the collectors' market after the limited edition has sold out.