published: 9 /
1 /
2012
Label:
Yep Roc
Format: CD
Upbeat piano pop and off-kilter art rock on second album from New York-based trio, Jukebox The Ghost
Review
New York’s Jukebox The Ghost’s ‘Everything Under the Sun’ shows the band has a good line in upbeat piano pop and off-kilter art rock that brings to mind the ebullience of Squeeze and the songcraft of Joe Jackson in one bouncy package.
Over the album’s course the band fire off a fusillade of well-timed pop trickery : Upbeat piano pumper ‘Schizophrenia’ kicks things off, sounding a bit like Weezer played by the Ben Folds Five, and from there it’s off to the races as the trio deploy such ear-candy as the synthetic wiggler ‘Half-Crazy’.
Having given the New Wave a good workout, they cool things down a bit for ‘Empire’ and roll into ‘Summer Sun’ with a melancholy piano line, heartbeat drums courtesy of Jesse Kristin and the vocal harmonies of pianist Ben Thornewell and guitarist Tommy Siegel. Siegel also gets to decorate ‘Mistletoe’ with some delirious guitar squiggles.
The tinkling ivories of ‘The Sun’ set the stage for a grandiose denouement, while ‘Let Us Create’ tacks on some high-reaching Queen-ish falsetto vocals. The band really reaches for the stars in, er, ‘The Stars’, which is a grab bag of the album’s other sounds jammed with decent success into one tune, which forecasts disaster and counsels preparation over some jaunty disco sounds.
“The Popular Thing’ glazes the doughnut with some further sweetness, while ‘Nobody’ sees the album out with a melancholy Nilsson-styled wave goodbye.
‘Everything Under the Sun’ is certainly all that a fan of piano pop could ask for, and should appeal to powerpop fans whose taste lands anywhere between 1972 and 1999.
Track Listing:-
1
Schizophrenia
2
Half Crazy
3
Empire
4
Summer Sun
5
Mistletoe
6
The Sun
7
So Let Us Create
8
Carrying
9
The Sun (Interlude)
10
The Stars
11
The Popular Thing
12
Nobody
13
Empire
Band Links:-
http://www.jukeboxtheghost.com/
https://twitter.com/JukeboxtheGhost
https://www.instagram.com/jukeboxthegh
https://www.facebook.com/jukeboxthegho
https://www.youtube.com/user/Jukeboxth
http://jukeboxtheghost.tumblr.com/
Label Links:-
http://www.yeproc.com/
https://www.facebook.com/yeproc
https://twitter.com/yeproc