Customer Reviews

Radio Jejune

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here's a band that has synthesized a unique pop formula, sweet, offbeat, occasionally transcendent. The best songs, such as the shimmering Sir Shaheen, mysterious Please Mr. B. and Howl A Little, have a serpentine shape; writer Ben Escher keeps leading us to bends where there's a musical surprise around the corner. The faster songs are more derivative, wearing XTC and the Talking Heads on their sleeves, but still fun and catchy. You'll find it hard to get these songs out of your head.

Yes, I believe that's what's being pulled on the general public by commercial radio. Look at what's popular, at what sells. It's almost exclusively cliched, creatively vacuous crap that's been packaged, concieved, and marketed for one reason, and you know it: PROFIT. But of course, all of you reading this review are quite aware of this, I'm sure, and I sound like a cliched, elitist, indie-loving whiner.

The reason I'm frustrated is because these guys are criminally unknown!! They should be huge! This record, which I've owned for at least 8-9 years, is brilliant: not a bad track on the entire album. The songs are complexly and beautifully arranged, the songwriting topnotch (lyrically as well as musically), and they can rock as hard as anyone to boot.

You like jangly, angular guitars? Do you like funny, clever, sincere lyrics? Do you like gorgeous, lush harmonies? Do you like UNPREDICTABLE, fresh, music that has been assembled with not one second of filler? Then buy this disc right now!!!! Truly a masterpiece and one of my favorites in a collection of 7,000 CDs.

Herein is a great slice of art-pop from Burbank's finest, The Sugarplastic. Ben Eshbach and co. deliver very well-wrought tunes with absolutely no electronics, just the traditional guitar/bass/drums setup with very clean guitar tones playing convoluted melody lines. "Please Mr. B" DOES have a banjo, but that's besides the point!

Yes, at times they sound like XTC ( 'Arizona' even has the lyric, "Just sit back and watch me snap what Mr. Moulding's done before," a reference to XTC's bassist Colin Moulding), but they are less frenzied and the lyrics are FAR more opaque. In fact, the words are often reminiscent of fellow Southern Californinan Van Dyke Parks. What should we make of lines like "My Bradykine has got my Achille's Heel", or "Sir Sheever reversed the purse of Miss Eliss"? They do get stuck inside one's head, though.

Many of the songs seem to be nostalgic reminiscences of childhood (probably why the CD is called 'Jejune'), but it's very vague. Also, what seems like 'poppy' material becomes more sinister-sounding with each listening. It's hard to define, but there's definitely something dark about some of these sweet-sounding tunes...particularly 'Howl A Little'. So, If you like some quirky pop that reveals more with every listening, this disc or the far less expensive 'Bang, The Earth Is Round' are both worth picking up. They also have a fine cut on the Powerpuff Girls' album, (Heroes and Villains) titled "Don't Look Down" that's a little more recent. ;oD.

whatta good record... just picked it up after looking at it for years and getting the geffen record used. i can't believe i lived without these guys for so long. if you like xtc you'll love this.

Here's a band that has synthesized a unique pop formula, sweet, offbeat, occasionally transcendent. The best songs, such as the shimmering Sir Shaheen, mysterious Please Mr. B. and Howl A Little, have a serpentine shape; writer Ben Escher keeps leading us to bends where there's a musical surprise around the corner. The faster songs are more derivative, wearing XTC and the Talking Heads on their sleeves, but still fun and catchy. Many of these songs stayed in my head for weeks.