Album Review: The Jigsaw Seen — For the Discriminating Completist
File next to: Baby Lemonade, The Who, Fountains of Wayne
Laboring just below the radar for more than a quarter century, Los Angeles-based The Jigsaw Seen have been releasing consistently satisfying records since its 1990 debut, Shortcut Through Clown Alley. The group’s body of work shows its musical inventiveness and effective synthesis of a wide array of influences. Though they’ve never had a major hit-proper (they did earn a spot on Rhino’s Children of Nuggets box set), this new compilation serves well as both a kind of greatest (non-) hits and – as the title suggests – a tidy odds-and-sods collection. Group mainstays Jonathan Lea and primary songwriter Dennis Davison have a knack for creating high-octane tunes that emphasize the power in power pop. For the Discriminating Completist is filled with undiscovered gems. With any luck, the title of the opening track “The Best is Yet to Come” is a prescient one.
About the Author
Bill Kopp
With a background in marketing and advertising, Bill Kopp got his professional start writing for Trouser Press. After a stint as Editor-in-chief for a national music magazine, Bill launched Musoscribe in 2009, and has published new content every business day since then (and every single day since 2018). The 4000-plus interviews, essays, and reviews on Musoscribe reflect Bill's keen interest in American musical forms, most notably rock, jazz, and soul. His work features a special emphasis on reissues and vinyl. Bill's work also appears in many other outlets both online and in print. He regularly hosts lecture/discussions on artists and albums of historical importance, and is a frequent guest on music-focused radio programs and podcasts. He also researches and authors liner notes for album reissues -- more than 30 to date -- and co-produced a reissue of jazz legend Julian "Cannonball" Adderley's final album. His first book, Reinventing Pink Floyd: From Syd Barrett to The Dark Side of the Moon was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2018, and in paperback in 2019. His second book, Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave, is available now from HoZac Books. Read even more about him here.