Rising from the ashes of two Seattle art punk darlings, The Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves, Jaguar Love is what many would call “the dream team” of underground music. Take Me to the Sea, Jaguar Love’s debut album is absolutely filled to the brim with hooks, from the straight forward, acoustic-driven “Bats Over the
Pacific Ocean” to the fuzzy guitar epic of “Humans Evolve Into Skyscrapers”.
While it’s easy to see the musicianship in these art punk vets (Cody Votolato is absolutely terrific on the guitar, while drummer, Jay Clark, does his best to keep an interesting beat on each of the ten tracks), one might cringe and slowly walk away from the ridiculous high pitched vocals of lead singer Johnny Whitney. Spitting forth incomprehensible lyrics of enchanted ballrooms, evil hallucinations, and murderous mobsters, Whitney’s approach to singing and song structure is, if anything, odd. Shying away from the cliché sing-scream, sing-scream method most myspace scene kids wet themselves over, Jaguar Love is not afraid to push the boundaries of what one might categorize “pop” music to sound like.
Setting forth to create something new and exciting, Jaguar Love’s Take Me to the Sea keeps the listener entertained from the opening vocals of “Highways of Gold” to the toe-tapping closer of “My Organ Sounds Like”, making a worthy addition to anyone’s iPod.
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