Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B

Album Review

Sep 24

Jockstrap

I Love You Jennifer B

For the London-based experimental pop band, variety is truly the spice of life.

It seems that in days gone by, everyone’s Grandma had the ubiquitous button box in her closet or under her bed. The box was usually an empty cookie tin that had been repurposed for the express goal of holding buttons salvaged from discarded garments.

No trip to Grandma’s house would be complete without thoroughly exploring said button box. The types were manifold and contained everything from giant winter coat buttons to dainty, sparkly ones from blouses and frocks of time gone by, each more interesting than the last.

Hours would be spent examining and sorting the buttons, wondering where they all possibly could have come from, delighting in the endless variety of colors, shapes, and materials.

Listening to I Love You Jennifer B by Jockstrap is a direct analog to those lethargic Sunday afternoons, laying on scratchy nylon carpet smelling of dust and cigarette smoke, lost in a tin universe of rainbow plastic and bone.

The British duo, consisting of Georgia Ellery on vocals and violin, and Taylor Skye on synthesizers, keyboards, drum machines, and programming, excel in the field of provocative noises. They’ll suddenly swoop in over a sedate bed of acoustic guitar, warble sensually and then launch into oblivion just as quickly. By the time you realize it’s happened, it’s almost gone.

At the very least, Taylor Skye is a superlative drum programmer. His knowledge and use of rhythm, augmented by unconventional as well as a nostalgic sprinkle of traditional-to-the-point-of-cliché percussion sounds would have almost merited a complete album as it is.

At different points on the album, most notably in the desperate, manic coda to “Angst,” even Georgia Ellery’s captivating vocals are given a William S. Burroughs-like cut and paste, percussive treatment, making the voice another captivating sound in the lush musical tapestry.

The vocals on this release can be best described as an adventure in texture and range. From the impassioned delivery of torch song ballads like “What’s It All About” to the confident country-fried rock delivery of “Glasgow” to the sultry and soulful disco-diva stylings of “Greatest Hits,” Georgia Ellery hits it out-of-the-park, touching all of the bases on the way there.

She has a voice that is at once familiar yet strikingly unique, including a breathy seduction on “Jennifer B,” reminiscent of Vanity’s 1984 hit “Pretty Mess” and a gentle plaintiveness in the vein of “Mimi on the Beach” era Jane Siberry on “Lancaster Court,” while still managing to retain a sound all of her own.

I Love You Jennifer B is one of those releases that gets better with each subsequent listen.

Upon repeated examination, things that seem ham-handed or off-putting on the first listen eventually reveal themselves to be part of a grander, subtle design wrought through the subversively effective production of Taylor Skye.

The hallmark of any exceptional producer is that they know the capabilities of their raw materials, be they synthesizer, drum machine, vocal track, or effect. Much like an artist who knows which shades of esoterically named paint to produce the heartbreak of an Autumn sunrise, so does Mr. Skye exercise his skills on this set of recordings, bolstered by an intimate knowledge of all the extraordinary moving parts it contains. One is struck by the deliberateness of the choices made in the aural sculpting of each individual song that proves to be on the money way more often than not.

This album is an assemblage of songs that Jockstrap had collected since the release of 2020’s Wicked City on Warp Records. As such, it is less of a cohesive project with a central thrust of purpose and style but more of a travelog of the band’s journey through time and space.

Each gem of a song is a pin on the map of all the influences coming to bear on this group. There is *unquestionably* something for everyone here.

Need some sweat-soaked ecstasy-besotted rave music? Check out the album’s closer, “50/50”.

Sad that Deee-Lite only had one good album? Put on the track “Greatest Hits.”

Woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night wondering what it would sound like if Vangelis, Gary Numan, and Kate Bush collaborated on the music for a Bollywood film that David Lynch directed? The track “Debra” will sort you out.

Pretty sure you get the idea.

The interesting part of getting older is that you think to ask the more significant questions you never ask as a child. In this case: “Grandma, why did you have a huge tin of buttons under your bed? Clearly, you could never have cause to use all of them for anything.”

Invariably she would reply, “I’ve never used one button out of that box, but it sure would keep you grandkids mesmerized in your own little world for hours every time you’d come over. That’s why I kept it.”

I Love You Jennifer B will also do that to you.

Doubtlessly, with every visit.