Customer Reviews

Future Signs

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This may not be the most phenomenal music you have ever heard, but it certainly is addictive! A fungus of sorts, Warm Jets will definitely grow on you! A diamond in the rough which is our present music industry. Play it if you have it.

the mad rush of britpop bands during the second half of the 90s was in essence, a battle of publicity. super snobby mags like nme, select, q, and vox heralded every other band as 'the next big thing.' many bands succeeded while many other failed, and it wasn't always a case of talent. take, for example, warm jets and their superb debut (and as far as i know, only) album.

warms jets weren't trying to be overly clever, dark, cinematic, eclectic or unique. sure, they owe a minor debt to catherine wheel, but they just wrote some really great pop songs. take, for example, the first three tracks from 'future signs.' 'moving,' 'never never' (my personal favorite), and 'hurricane.' each song is well-crafted, succint, well-produced, and unbelievably hooky. a lot of music from the britpop era was bloated and heavy (think blur's 'the great escape', for one). 'future signs,' however, relied on a less-is-more mantra. there's very little filler on the album. the songs are straightforward and undemanding (in this case, it's a very good thing). louis jones vocas are great (and yeah, he's sort of like rob dickensen with the the rasp). the musicianship is solid and accomplished. but i think more than anything, there's a real sense of joy and fun on the album (a lot like you hear on franz ferdinand records). in buying this album (as i suggest you do), you could certainly do a whole heck of a lot worse, but not a whole lot better.

just on a personal note: 'never never' is one of the great britpop singles that never happened. i absolutely love this song. it's an all-time favorite. it's got one of the best chorus' i've ever heard.

I bought this album for 50 cents on Amazon.com & I really like it! I think you may,too. I was reading a lukewarm review of them in an old Select. Although the reviewer was kinda trashing it, it sounded like something I'd like, & sure enough.....very, very good! It's in the Super Blurry Bowie realm. Nice chord changes, lotsa hooks, and gets better with every listen. Like the guy up there said; It won't blow you away, but you may find yourself putting it on again and again.

The Eno allusion of the title (which itself was apparently a reference to impending micturation) aside, most of this CD pays homage to Bowie, in the vocals and the attention paid to space and science-fiction concepts. Perhaps a concept album lurks in the lyrics. The music, which I had bought when this album came out due to a bandmember formerly in the Pale Saints, lacks the 80s/90s 4AD label type of atmospheric spectrality. The Pale Saints, at least on their first album The Comforts of Madness, merged postpunk-prog-pop into a sonic swirl. Here, it's not so much a blend as a brand: not too hard or soft, usually steady neats and shorter tunes. It's punchier and more mainstream. But, less memorable for my tastes. Still, not a bad album for the late 90s wave of bands following Blur & Oasis, and it's solidly crafted. I prefer less Bowie-esque singing styles, so my rating may be a bit lower than yours would be if you worship the Thin White Duke.