Jets To Brazil - Orange Rhyming Dictionary
Even in the allegedly unpretentious world of hardcore, the dreaded term Supergroup occasionally rears its head. And JTB are apparently just that featuring ex members of Handsome, Texas Is The Reason and Jawbreaker. And given those band names, youd be right in guessing that this isnt the warrrggh Im going rip your head off style of hardcore. This is from the melodic side of things.
And its not bad, with opener Crown Of The Valley being a particularly sublime piece of work. Hard yet with enough melodic and pop styling, it features a classically simple riff. And thats sets the scene for the rest of the album. The first 3 or 4 songs, Morning New Disease, Resistance is Futile and Starry Configurations sustain the quality.
There are times that I think of Bad Religion, especially on Resistance is Futile. Musically its not the same, but the lyrics sometimes make you think of that verbose intellectual feel that Greg Graffin has become infamous for, and some of the phrasing and raspy style of the vocals. And what is the melody that runs through Conrad that Im trying to remember. God that gets irritating. Thing is, as it approaches the middle of the album, things are slowing downing and its becoming introspective. Stuff that takes time to settle. Then King Medicine picks things up again and the quality shines through again. It feels inconsistent, but, the more I listen, the more clearer it becomes. Its an album where I get the feeling its going to take maybe a few months for me to really know what I think. A grower I believe is the term often used. This could be, or it could turn out to be patchy, moments of genius surrounded by moments of averageness. Im reminded of the last Social Distortion studio album, which I thought was cack to start with, and a couple of months later I couldnt stop playing!
The cover is cack though, which is why that isnt a picture of it up by there.
Available on JadeTree records.