A biting, declarative vocal. In some songs it works, and in others it absolutely does not. I realised partway through the album that the lyrics are probably very important for the overall enjoyment factor, and that the album is probably a concept album. Alas – I'm not a lyrical listener.
Hornets! Hornets! does well to slap you awake after a long Saturday night rest. (Hence the band's name. Heh.) The vocals, guitars, drums, and bass are all reasonably simple, yet loud and in-your-face. I prefer the second half of the song, which morphs into something akin to slow stadium rock. That riff in the outro: dizzying, layered, just a little trippy but still perfectly cohesive. We get a near-seamless transition into Cattle And The Creeping Things, where the vocal starts to get a little irritating. Sure, this guy's voice cuts through the mix, but a monotonous shout doesn't do him any favours. Fortunately, the other elements of the track make up for all that nonsense. Reasonably fast and incredibly energetic – a great song for driving. The vocals settle down by the second half, and man, those guitar lines are incredible. In Your Little Hoodrat Friend, the vocalist remembers (vaguely) how to carry a melody, which I think is the main appeal behind the song, judging by number of streams. Another reasonably melodic performance (the bare minimum, by the way) in Banging Camp, with a weird sort of wall-of-sound woodwind-keyboard thing in the chorus contributing to the uniqueness factor. A loud and proud guitar part, though I could see it getting a little old on repeat listens.
Charlemagne In Sweatpants: legendary track title. It's hard to top that unless your surname is Zappa or Beefheart. The song itself sounds like a Rolling Stones 70s cut (aside from the vocals which are doing their own weird thing). Even the guitar solo sounds Stoney. Stevie Nix is an exceptionally bewildering track that is saved by its little instrumental interludes every time they appear. The lyrics yell nonsensically about something regarding guys sitting on lockers. A dramatically softer middle section involves just piano, and by golly, it singlehandedly shifts the song from one of the weakest on the record to one of the strongest. In Multitude Of Casualties, Finn is both trying to add a quasi-melody to his delivery but without really matching that melody to the chords. Unfortunate. Don't Let Me Explode does a little better, though it's pretty tough to mess up a 6/8 piano piece. Weirdly reminiscent of Feeling Good. The mention of Charlemagne made me realise, "damn, this is probably a concept album that I should've given a lot more credit to."
The transition into Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night is solid as heck, and the song itself sounds like a musical encore. The low, loud guitar melody, mirrored by a trumpet, is the main giveaway. (Similar to the final track, How a Resurrection Really Feels.) Apologies to Crucifixion Cruise but I can't see myself recommending that track to friends and colleagues. A single organ chord isn't as revolutionary as the Hold Steady might reckon. At least the final song is solid and progresses through several complementary sections. The idea of a music box outro is really cool to me.
3/5
Key tracks: Cattle And The Creeping Things, Your Little Hoodrat Friend, How a Resurrection Really Feels
Jimmy did what?!
Clarity is a bit of a wacky choice for this band, so hopefully somebody else took Bleed American. To be fair, I only know The Middle from Jimmy Eat World, but judging by streaming numbers there's a clear choice for the most important JEW record. Now admittedly, the second half of this record makes me eat my words a little bit. Some great tunes back there.
Table For Glasses starts us off with a slow build, and the harmonies in the last couple choruses make it well worth the wait. Otherwise, not too much to comment on. The sophomore track, Lucky Denver Mint, makes it clear JEW is a bit clueless when it comes to mixing. Why are those vocals so darn quite even when they're harmonised? Why do the drums sound like someone tapping an empty tissue box with a pair of chopsticks? Annoyingly, though, the song is kind of catchy, and I could sort of see myself returning to it. Your New Aesthetic, though? I can get behind that completely. Sounds like a less melodramatic precursor of '00s/'10s emo bands (think P!ATD, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance...). A very punky energy that nevertheless maintains some semblance of musical prowess. (In contrast to the vast majority of punk, of course.) Believe In What You Want has a similar proto-modern-emo feel. I like the contrast between the staccato verses and smooth, more drawn-out choruses. I'm ambivalent about A Sunday, mainly because it sounds like an early throwaway Radiohead track from the Pablo Honey sessions and (relatedly) has a very boring melody. I like to think JEW are aware of all this, though, and I hope the resemblance is intentional. That assumed to be the case, I enjoy the song.
Around this point I realised these guys take clear inspiration from grunge. The clearest influence so far presents in the last few bars of Crush. Good stuff. 12.23.95 starts with a nifty synth effect and dreamy guitar riff. The song doesn't really progress anywhere, but then does it need to? Despite being the eighth track, Ten is named thus, but I give it a mild pass purely because the high piano tickles my eardrums. We're about due for a ballad, and JEW teases us with a ballad intro in Just Watch The Fireworks before diverging into a weird soft-pop sound that isn't quite interesting enough to hold my attention or respect. Fortunately, seven minutes is plenty of time for a track to develop – and by the gods, it sure develops. That second half might be the finest four minutes on the entire record. For Me This Is Heaven definitely gives it a run for its money, though. Shamelessly beautiful, freeing, open, and aglow with this wonderful energy that manages to toe the line between cheesy and drop-dead gorgeous. Then we get another solid track in Blister, with its main claim to fame being the overlapping vocal lines and unimpeachable energy. The album reaches a peak in heaviness with its penultimate track, Clarity. The (many) guitar lines, while simple, are also pretty intense and engaging.
We end with the gargantuan 16-minute Goodbye Sky Harbour. And a very interesting choice to not allow any musical progression at all. It's like if LONG SEASON (Fishmans) were slightly worse. Which, to be clear, isn't really a dig at JEW, because that Fishmans record is flawless. But at least it varies a bit. Goodbye Sky Harbour repeats the same pretty guitar melody with an unchanging background texture for, well, 16 minutes straight. I like it, but it could be so much better, you know? (I stand corrected. We get some textural changes from 12:30 onward.)
4/5
Key tracks: Your New Aesthetic, For Me This Is Heaven, Blister
Shoutout to the legendary model Dolores Erickson – that's an incredible album cover considering the year of release. They allowed this in the uptight mid-60s? The music itself is passable but it's the visual artwork that really creates a lasting impression.
I'm not super convinced by A Taste Of Honey – it lacks the spark of the Beatles' version (which itself is one of the weakest tracks on a Beatles studio album – but I digress), and in fact lacks any vocals at all. Still, those soft, cheerful trumpet lines have undeniable charm, and fortunately Herb Alpert (and co.) appear to agree with me, since they appear in every one of the twelve tracks here. Unfortunately, though, such consistency means the listener has to search elsewhere for track-to-track variation. In Green Peppers, there isn't much of that, and so it's fortunate that it lasts only 91 seconds. Tangerine features some nice acoustic guitar lines, a nice piano solo, and a Latin-style groove, easily making it an early-album highlight. (But Led Zeppelin's Tangerine – no relation – is better.) Bittersweet Samba, true to its name, alternates between major and minor feels, and the melody is extremely cheery while following a standard Flamenco chord progression. Then Lemon Tree comes in with a nice melody that unfortunately gets a little buried when it's played on anything other than the trumpet. Kind of hard to hate such a whimsical little ditty, though. The title track has a melody that strays close to something extremely recognisable, and I have to like it out of principle. (Edit: the piece I'm thinking of is Spanish Flea, performed by this same group. No wonder!)
Maybe the most impressive instrument playing so far, in terms of raw expression, in Love Potion No. 9. It isn't *that* impressive, mind you, but those trumpet and sax tones stand out amongst the crowd. Also the longest song here, at a staggering 3 minutes flat. El Garbanzo feels a little simplistic and limp, and I'm left here wishing I were listening to something more exciting from 1965. (Think Rubber Soul, Highway 61 Revisited, A Love Supreme, etc.) Call it side 2 blues. Now Ladyfingers... I could absolutely see this as the theme of a retro movie. Think The Godfather. Or maybe a whimsical Christmas edition of The Godfather. Lovely melody here. Butterball: ridiculously charming and technically transitions into Peanuts by using the same trumpet note to end the former and begin the latter. Peanuts has near identical energy and simplicity. A standard yet charming melody plus a bouncy bassline in Lollipops and Roses sends off the record.
3/5
Key tracks: Tangerine, Love Potion No. 9, Ladyfingers