Everything Is New

Jack Peñate | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: August 18, 2009
• Label: XL
• Copyright: 2009 XL Recordings Ltd.
• Total Length: 33:46
• Genres:
• ASIN: B002JOYBT6
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,047 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars His rebirth. A brilliant, captivating mix of different genres., August 22, 2009

By 

bollywood (Leeds, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everything Is New (Audio CD)

Jack Penate's second album is considered by many to be his music coming of age.
It's a minor comeback, but it's still a hugely impressive one. Only two years ago, upon the release of his debut album, "Matinée", Jack Peñate was a fairly middle-of-the-road might have been a Housemartins for the Noughties, at worst another Kate Nash impersonator.
"The idea behind making it was for me to do something that was driven by drums and bass with rhythms from music outside of my home. It was a complete adventure remembering and finding all the music that came to inspire the record".
His time away has been well-spent, though. After a year in the studio with his producer Paul Epworth, his appropriately-named sophomore record, "Everything Is New", is totally different from the first.
There are no concessions to synth-pop chart fads and no unnecessary guest stars.
"Delightfully scruffy disco vaguely reminiscent of Orange Juice and Aztec Camera. Shucking off his lo-fi mockney origins, Penate has got his glitterball spinning.
While retaining an edgy vocal spirit of real life in philosophical songs about love and death, Penate's zestful arrangements conjure 'Saturday Night Fever' grooves.
Touching, clever and poptastic". - Neil McCormick
He has made such a massive leap forward in scope and quality in the space of one album.
The 24-year-old sounds reborn.
Every one of the nine songs his latest release is a fascinating blend of genres, best broadly described as "London soul".
Penate's new material is very good. He has suddenly found a sense of rhythm: the current single "Tonight's Today", for example, might sport an inane and somewhat gimmicky chorus, but it's as catchy as any pop song has a right to be, and the influences of a merging of afrobeat and house music are richly realised.
"Be the One" is the usual love song, but the traditional four-piece band arrangement does a great job of recreating the dynamics of house music.
Even when slowing down the pace for "Every Glance", Peñate's music benefits from a lithe new sensuality and a bona fide sense of adventure.
Elsewhere, the urgent primal scream of "Let's All Die" (written when Penate was 18 and crossing America on Greyhound buses with his bassist, Joel) forms a diptych with the more mournful "Body Down" in considering how death might be approached.
These are big themes for a young artist, and they demonstrate how Penate has now moved out of his contemporaries' shadows.
Very few albums released this year take as many risks and succeeds so clearly.
For sure Penate will surely live up to all expectations.

Matinee
It's Not Me, It's You

4.0 out of 5 stars Jack Peñate grow up, March 4, 2010

By 

J. Pratty (Manhattan Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everything Is New (Audio CD)

Jack Peñate's sophmore album expands and improves on his debut effort. Mixing soul, tropicalia, and Afro-beat rhythms this record shakes and grooves well enough to be interesting. Obviously unsatisfied with his first release, Peñate had to mature his sound a lot for this album and the results are remarkable. Peñate is enthusiastic and heartfelt and he truly does do justice to his source material while still creating a sound all his own. Some highlights in particular are "So Near" and "Tonight's Today", which is a danceable, fun, latin-tinged tune that will have you humming it all day.

5.0 out of 5 stars SO MUCH BETTER THAN HIS DEBUT, September 2, 2009

By 

S. Jones (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everything Is New (Audio CD)

INFINITELY SUPERIOR to the yawn-fest that was "Matinee." I wasn't going to give this a second look until I heard "Tonight's Today" and "Be the One" on the Current (the local MPR Indie station in Mpls/Saint Paul). So glad they played it. Jack has grown up. His song-writing has improved. And the dancy world-music sound he plays with here is absolutely addictive. A total turnaround from the mostly-unplugged "Matinee." It could have been terrible, but thanks in large part to Paul Epworth's excellent production work, it is a major success!