{"id":25602,"date":"2023-07-07T05:30:34","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T09:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25602"},"modified":"2023-07-06T16:47:05","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T20:47:05","slug":"album-review-sparklejets-u-k-best-of-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/07\/album-review-sparklejets-u-k-best-of-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Sparkle*jets U.K. — Best of Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"More often than not, tribute albums center around artists or songs that are comparatively well-known. But Best of Friends<\/em>, the latest album from misleadingly-named L.A. power pop trio Sparkle*jets U.K. is no ordinary tribute album. The artists honored on this collection of 21 songs don\u2019t rank among the highest-profile acts. Among powerpop devotees (and, if such a category can be said to exist, less fanatical admirers of the subgenre) their names are held in high regard. Those who own one or more of Jordan Oakes\u2019 classic Yellow Pills<\/em> comps \u2013 or perhaps some of Bruce Brodeen\u2019s compilations \u2013 will spot some names they recognize. There\u2019s no mistaking the high quality of music from artists like The Negro Problem, The Shazam, and (two personal faves) Wondermints and Kenny Howes.<\/p>\n

By most evidence, after an auspicious start in the late \u201890s \u2013 including a pair of well-received albums \u2013 Sparkle*jets U.K. seemed to vanish from the scene for a couple of decades. But they\u2019ve returned now, and while covering the music of their peers\/contemporaries might seem an odd and somewhat unconventional means of reacquainting themselves with listeners, here we are.<\/p>\n

Michael Simmons (guitars and sundries), Jamie Knight (bass and more sundries) and vocalist Susan West are Sparkle*jets U.K., and they have the goods to serve these songs up in style. Wonderful harmonies, chiming guitars and uncluttered yet heartfelt arrangements are the order of the day. And subtle in-jokes remind the careful listener that this trio is populated with some keen students of the pop(ular) music form. The guitar solo on a cover of Walter Clevenger and the Dairy Kings\u2019 \u201cHold on Tight\u201d is a virtual lift from The Beatles\u2019 \u201cAnd Your Bird Can Sing,\u201d but it\u2019s so cleverly recontextualized that all charges have been summarily dropped.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s approach is as varied as the material. Sometimes it\u2019s rocking, and other times it\u2019s breezy in the \u201870s AM Gold sort of way (a cover of Kerry \u201cKompost\u201d Chicoine\u2019s \u201cOne Summer Sunday\u201d). The popsike la-la-la-isms of Cosmo Topper\u2019s \u201cAre We There Yet\u201d are a treat. The album plays like an ace powerpop sampler, and at its core, that\u2019s really what it is. The main difference, of course, is that all the performances are by one very versatile group. They deftly thread the needle, remaining true to the values that made the original versions of tunes like \u201cIn and Around Greg Lake\u201d so great while putting their own stamp on the material.<\/p>\n

And I suspect that if listening to Best of Friends<\/i> sends listeners off to discover more music by the original artists, Sparkle*jets U.K. will be pleased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More often than not, tribute albums center around artists or songs that are comparatively well-known. But Best of Friends, the latest album from misleadingly-named L.A. power pop trio Sparkle*jets U.K. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,55,62,65],"tags":[5186],"class_list":["post-25602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-powerpop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-sparklejets-u-k","cat-49-id","cat-55-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25602","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=25602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25604,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25602\/revisions\/25604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}