{"id":23159,"date":"2022-06-17T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=23159"},"modified":"2022-06-21T17:59:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-21T21:59:40","slug":"album-review-spygenius-jobbernowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/17\/album-review-spygenius-jobbernowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Spygenius — Jobbernowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Those Cantabrigian masters of melody are at it again. Jobbernowl<\/i> may sport an inscrutable title, but the music is accessible in the extreme. Spygenius\u2019 knowing way with ear candy tune creation is showcased once again on their latest release. The wordplay that is a baked-in characteristic of their music crops up immediately: the opening sonic salvo is \u201cI Dig Your New Robes, Pierre.\u201d With retro keyboard textures and straightforward rock\/pop feel, the song displays well-integrated absorption of influences including The Beatles and XTC.<\/p>\n

But this creative quartet never lets cleverness overwhelm a good tune. The group masterfully balances their witty lyrical inclinations with a fundamental understanding of pop values. The music is timeless: it builds upon sounds of the past while avoiding the retro minefield. People who wrongheadedly say that there\u2019s no music today as good as [fill in your preferred era] simply haven\u2019t spent time with Spygenius. Thier music ticks all the boxes of the sounds that thrilled you in the past, while resolutely planting its metaphorical feet in the here-and-now. Sure, those harmonies in the outro of \u201cSky-Pie, Century 21\u201d have roots in Rubber Soul<\/i>-era rock, but then what music of value doesn\u2019t have at least some connection along those lines?<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s sunny disposition is leavened with the melancholy jangle of \u201c2020 Revision.\u201d But cheery uptempo rock-pop rears its head soon thereafter with \u201cSon of the Morning, Go Man Go!\u201d The group digs into art-pop with the dreamy \u201cAll That is Solid Melts Into Air.\u201d (Yeah, odd and idiosyncratic song titles abound.) The multiple, intertwining melodic lines of \u201cThe Marvellous, Mendacious Time Machine\u201d are a Klaatu-flavored delight.<\/p>\n

\u201cMandy Rice-Davies Applies\u201d features irresistible vocal harmonies and a sparkling arrangement. Ruth Rogers steps up to the lead vocal mic for \u201cScrewy,\u201d leading to the question: \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t she get more lead vocal spots?\u201d Spygenius\u2019 songwriter and primary singer Peter Watts possesses an embarrassment of riches in that regard, is probably why…but still. (The song\u2019s keyboard work and guitar solos are a treat as well.)<\/p>\n

Spygenius always places a high value upon clear, uncluttered yet interesting and layered arrangement. But at the same time there\u2019s a close-in, intimate feel to the sounds; they balance studio precision with a you-are-there vibe. And the music has a character that suggests they could pull it all off live with the same level of precision and verve. Longer, more pensive tunes like \u201cOf Narcissus\u201d (with some nicely understated Mellotron-styled aural textures) are peppered among the uptempo ones.<\/p>\n

All previous observations about the group\u2019s soft-pedaling of retro tendencies are rendered moot with the odd set-closer, \u201cFoucalt Swings Like a Pendulum Do.\u201d With an affected lead vocal and a carnivalesque arrangement, it\u2019s a cousin to The Beatles’ \u201cHoney Pie\u2019 and twee tunes of that ilk. If that raises flags for you, Approach with caution. It\u2019s a somewhat unfortunate outlier. But don\u2019t let that detour into English music hall nostalgia put you off: the rest of the album is as solid as rock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those Cantabrigian masters of melody are at it again. Jobbernowl may sport an inscrutable title, but the music is accessible in the extreme. Spygenius\u2019 knowing way with ear candy tune […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,62,65],"tags":[4161,4255],"class_list":["post-23159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-big-stir-records","tag-spygenius","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23159"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23237,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23159\/revisions\/23237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}