I Love You Jennifer B

London duo Jockstrap found their footing with their first two EPs, 2018s Love Is the Key to the City and 2020s Wicked City, demolishing pretty orchestral pop with experimental electronics and then blissfully reassembling the shattered pieces. There were some great moments, but the overarching feeling was one of everything being thrown at the wall in the hope that something would stick. While no less experimental, debut full-length I Love You Jennifer B feels far sturdier and more intentional, with Jockstrap adding new dimensions to their signature weirdness with well-constructed hooks and dense sounds that change on almost every song. Georgia Ellerys controlled vocal performances guide the songs through their various disparate forms, sitting atop a pastiche of stock 90s club drum beats and dancey synth sounds on "Greatest Hits," and chopped up beyond recognition on the blown-out push of "50/50." "Glasgow" imagines an alternate reality where the Avalanches produced Sheryl Crows biggest hits, drowning roots rock acoustic guitars with overpowering strings and electronic textures. The album switches gears from abrasive to gentle quickly, but the changes are always fluid and any disruption feels by design. Processed harp is prominently featured on several songs and the lush strings and folk inflections that sometimes showed up on the bands earliest material resurface with minimal added abstraction on "Whats It All About?". The albums dazzling centerpiece "Concrete Over Water" brings Jockstraps various approaches together dynamically, building from backwards vocals and slight synth tones into a crowded and anthemic choruses full of scattered beats, anxious acid synth arpeggios, shouty backing vocals, and squalls of string sounds. In moments like this (and on the bizarre voice over snippets of "Jennifer B") Jockstrap feels like a more sophisticated, slightly more patient cousin of 100 gecs, composing their chaos with an academic touch, but never so much so that the danger or intrigue is extracted. I Love You Jennifer B is pop at its most baffling, but its considered arrangement keeps the album not just listenable, but thrilling, even as it dives off of various sonic cliffs into the unknown. ~ Fred Thomas

ブラック・カントリー・ニュー・ロード以前よりジョージア・エラリーがテイラー・スカイと組んでいたオルタナティヴなポップ・デュオ。この待望のファースト・アルバムはテイラーがプロデュース/ミックスを担当し、回転数の狂ったような奇矯さでブン殴られる"50/50"や風変わりなニューウェイヴの"Concrete Over Water"を筆頭に、無邪気なアマチュア感覚と実験精神と遊び心がポップに炸裂しまくり! クセになる人はクセになるはず!
bounce (C)狛犬