By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring Cluley’s psychy indietronica record I’D LIKE TO LOVE and Eyesore & The Jinx’s long awaited post-punk ripper JITTERBUG!
Eyesore & The Jinx – JITTERBUG
Genre: Post-Punk
Favorite Tracks: “Self Improver,” “Nocturnal Athletes,” “Sleepless”
It feels like I’ve waited forever for JITTERBUG. Really, it’s been three years of regularly re-visiting Eyesore & The Jinx’s streaming pages only to relisten to THE EXILE PARLOUR EP nearly every time. Patience, somebody rightly argued, is a virtue. Because this 11-track effort is a huge payoff for those of us who’ve eagerly awaited the Liverpool trio’s debut. “Self Improver” is a proper Eyesore-ian beginning as it lays the foundation for what defines Eyesore (janky, oddly sing-song-y post-punk with lyrics like “Six sets of breakfast and an herbal enema / Had to be yourself but better”). A proper chunk of the record maintains that insightful-but-stilly baseline. “Big Brain” is less direct, but the intellectual oddness hums across the lyrics; “The Itch” may be especially catchy, but it’s also a compact distillation of the band’s oddball musicality; “Horsebox” shows how easily Eyesore can make the dumbest constructs into irksome earworms.
Yet much of this LP is different—or, more unassuming, unfettered, and unbothered. “Nocturnal Athletes (Ode To Bruno)” is a massive step up conceptually. This funny-but-disarmingly-earnest ode to the “Grenade” singer sees the band embrace the full scope of the insanity promised by their core sound/shtick. Sure, they tip-toe back and forth for much of the record, but this “highlight” massively shifts the band’s center of gravity. So, when they do “go big” again, it works to flesh out Eyesore in really compelling ways. That’s most clear in the closers, the near-seven-minute “Sleepless” and the five-minute “What Doesn’t Kill You.” Eyesore have gone long before, but a sweltering, super-indulgent jam leading into something that’s slow to the point of nearly being off-kilter folk-pop is just massively beguiling. You’re dancing as you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, and that tease just extends a theme of this record: the band are in your head now more than ever before. (And they’ve earned that place with gusto.)
It’s that very dynamic that empowers JITTERBUG. The record tries to both double down on what made the band compelling—especially odd punk—while pushing forward not with flimsy novelty or innovation but rather depth, humor, and a clarity of mission (to gleefully dismantle modern life). It captures the band’s essence in vital ways, but also tries to battle back against fleeting, ultimately silly ideas of stagnation by moving and sticking with sharper ideas and barbs than ever before. It lets you have your cake and eat it too—even if you also think it’s been spiked somehow. In that way, Eyesore feel as if they’re both commenting on and ignoring delays and even the volatility of debuts themselves. It’s about the balance between knowing yourselves and moving deeper into the creative ether, and how humor and commitment can make this process all the more scary and exhilarating for everyone. I’d wait for this album for another couple of years because it affirms, complicates, and extends my relationship with Eyesore. And because it explores ideas of creative growth and the artist-fan relationship in really novel ways. But mostly ‘cause it rocks all the way out. Listen to it now over on Bandcamp. [Chris Coplan]
Cluley – I’D LIKE TO LOVE
Genre: Indietronica, Downtempo, Neo-Psychedelia
Favorite Tracks: “Echo Hit Box,” “The Butterfly’s Effect,” “You Just Can’t Win!”
It’s fun watching fun people be creative. Dean Aaron Cluley runs the Instagram page Shibuyadust, which is not only a wonderful insight into his mind, but a treasure trove of just some of the music he’s engrossed in: Shibuya-kei, bossa nova, and jazz pop. His initiative in adorning such colorful sounds is organic and inspiring, as I too find myself integrating my influences into my own processes and personhood. After following Cluley for quite some time, it was a wonderful surprise to discover his music gives flowers to those genres. I’D LIKE TO LOVE is a true labor of love project, helmed by his cartoon apparition, Lúcia Selen, who’s the face of the album. Her patchwork, kooky appearance charmingly mirrors the jolly musical worlds that Cluley explores. To then portray Selen as bisexual and a typification of greater LGBTQ+ representation in modern-day cartoons exhibits earnest empowerment. In turn, Cluley’s ethos gracefully becomes even more fulfilling.
The album itself is cozy and comfortable. Cluley’s instrumental influences are proudly worn on his sleeve, with every sound sewn together by his own hand. “Reykjavík” and “Echo Hit Box” are a one-two punch of chipper walking tunes for a sunny morning. The latter sways with a steady beat and record-scratching, a backing track good enough for an unraveling Pizzicato Five song. “Isabella Tiger Moth” and “The Butterfly’s Effect” emulate the stilted, wavy glitch pop of Cornelius, both carrying shimmering percussion. “You Just Can’t Win!” expands on this inspiration, as humming synths, echoey guitars, and distant chimes woven into the background culminate into a breezy chillout groove. It’s almost like video game music, down to its addictive, cartoonish charm and nonchalant overtone. Meanwhile, the title track “I’d Like To Love” is split into two parts—the first an effervescent blend of trip hop and glitch pop, and the second a bit-heavy ambient odyssey, like traversing through a crystalline cave.
Cluley’s pool of sounds stretches wide and deep for how varied it is. It’s endearing to see any artist revel in the art that makes them feel whole. Cluley’s self-proclamation as a “connoisseur” of these exquisite pop genres is not in jest, rather, it is candid: he truly cares about supporting other creatives of many identities for their profound effects upon him, so his efforts also deserve to be wrapped with welcoming arms. Check out Cluley’s alternative pop adventure on Bandcamp. [Dom Lepore]
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