Mystery Jets

At the tender age of 16 you find that you’re constantly trying to find yourself and a lot of the time this comes through music. At the age of 17 I felt lost, I wasn’t sure who I was and what I enjoyed and disliked. Music came to my rescue admittedly the first band I ever saw was Babyshambles closely followed by The Paddingtons (remember them?). Thankfully the third band I ever saw was the wonderful Mystery Jets, I suppose watching them at the age of 17 was an eye opener and it could be described as a “moment”. Standing inside a sweaty Northampton Soundhaus watching first Larrikin Love (god bless them boys) I decided this was what I liked.

Three years later Mystery Jets return with a second album, a fresh sound and a new line up too (well not new, but now four members of MJ instead of five). I turn 20 in exactly a month’s time (how weird is having 29th of February eh?) Now, the reason I say this is because Mystery Jets new album is of course titled Twenty-One (no connection to me be 20 at all really, oh well).

I am lucky enough to have the sampler of the Mystery Jets new album which comes out in March and you should definitely buy it if you know what’s good for you. Mystery Jets are back and they are back stronger than ever, with Erol producing and Blaine singing as beautifully as ever it is the perfect combination. Although ‘Flakes’ was not released until December time it remains one of my favourite songs of 2007. Hearing that song to end a club night was electrifying and it really did feel like a moment. New single ‘Young Love’ is the best single of 2008 so far, and feels like a summer smash to me. Newly recorded ‘Half In Love With Elizabeth’ does not disappoint either, and new song ‘Girl Next Door’ adopts an 80’s feel to it and is Mystery Jets on the top of their game.

It was always going to be hard to follow up on ‘Making Dens’ but I think Mystery Jets might have produced one of the best second albums (from what I’ve heard so far) I’ve heard in my life time.

Run To Your Grave.

Without me even knowing (and a large majority of people) The Mae Shi have been around for donkeys years, in fact 2002 was the year the band actually formed. They come from Los Angeles, California and have had three albums previous to newest album “HLLLYH” which surprised me. There was me thinking this was a new band – however from what I’ve read the sound has changed dramatically from the earlier albums.

I have only heard songs from the “HLLLYH” (how is that pronounced? I always want to say “Hell Yeah!”). I have no idea how The Mae Shi sounded before 2008 but at times The Mae Shi sound like they are from the future. “Lamb and the Lion” demonstrates the bands at times futuristic sound, and at times the band’s vocals remind me much like Jesse Lacey of Brand New especially in “I Get Almost Everything”.

Brilliantly named “Pwnd” is a song The Rapture would be proud of, and fellow “HLLLYH” album track “Run To Grave” wouldn’t look out of place on any of the three Hot Chip albums. The Mae Shi mix rock and electronic music perfectly, with a slight twist of screamo in there too.

The album which is out now is released on the excellent Moshi Moshi (another Brand New reference) and it comes highly recommended from myself.

The Return of the Mac... British Sea Power Even.

Firstly, let me apologise for the lack of updates around this place for a couple of weeks. I would try to claim that I’ve been very busy doing University work however that would be a big fat lie (the fattest lie you’ve ever seen). The truth is I’ve not feel very inspired too get back into the blogging mood but that’s all changed now!

So okay now that is out of the way I am going to be doing a few features over the next couple of months focusing on bands returning to our ears and boy there is some great bands coming back. First up is the wonderfully quintessential Brighton-based (originally from Cumbria and West Yorkshire) foursome British Sea Power. Since ‘The Decline of British Sea Power’ dropped almost 5 years ago BSP have proved to be one of the finest live acts around. Not taking anything away from their ability on record too which is pretty spectacular.

Agreed I am one month out because the third effort from BSP came out almost one month ago – so excuse me for this sin. The reasoning behind is that I’ve only just picked up the album titled “Do You Like Rock Music?” The word “Rock” makes me cringe slightly, it reminds me of the rock hand gesture (you know the one) and long greasy hair listening to Guns of Roses. Obviously Rock music has lots of sub genres but the term “Rock” makes me feel slightly uncomfortable for some reason. However if British Sea Power is Rock music, then fuck yeah I love Rock music.

This album is brimming with potential spine chilling live songs (‘Canvey Island’ and ‘Lights Out for Darker Skies’ come to mind). Not forgetting ‘A Trip Out’, ‘Down on the Ground’ along with singles ‘Waving Flags’ and ‘No Lucifer’ as stand out tracks on the album. Yan's lead vocals are pretty special throughout the whole record and make me tremendously jealous of his vocal range and variety. It’s far too early for me to say whether or not this album betters the previous two stunning pieces of work, but either way I am very happy they are back.

British Sea Power – Canvey Island
British Sea Power – A Trip Out
British Sea Power – Waving Flags