London duo
Jockstrap found their footing with their first two EPs, 2018's Love Is the Key to the City and 2020's
Wicked City, demolishing pretty orchestral pop with experimental electronics and then blissfully reassembling the shattered pieces. There were some great moments, but the overarching feeling was one of everything being thrown at the wall in the hope that something would stick. While no less experimental, debut full-length
I Love You Jennifer B feels far sturdier and more intentional, with
Jockstrap adding new dimensions to their signature weirdness with well-constructed hooks and dense sounds that change on almost every song.
Georgia Ellery's controlled vocal performances guide the songs through their various disparate forms, sitting atop a pastiche of stock '90s club drum beats and dancey synth sounds on "Greatest Hits," and chopped up beyond recognition on the blown-out push of "50/50." "Glasgow" imagines an alternate reality where
the Avalanches produced
Sheryl Crow's biggest hits, drowning roots rock acoustic guitars with overpowering strings and electronic textures. The album switches gears from abrasive to gentle quickly, but the changes are always fluid and any disruption feels by design. Processed harp is prominently featured on several songs and the lush strings and folk inflections that sometimes showed up on the band's earliest material resurface with minimal added abstraction on "What's It All About?". The album's dazzling centerpiece "Concrete Over Water" brings
Jockstrap's various approaches together dynamically, building from backwards vocals and slight synth tones into a crowded and anthemic choruses full of scattered beats, anxious acid synth arpeggios, shouty backing vocals, and squalls of string sounds. In moments like this (and on the bizarre voice over snippets of "Jennifer B")
Jockstrap feels like a more sophisticated, slightly more patient cousin of
100 gecs, composing their chaos with an academic touch, but never so much so that the danger or intrigue is extracted.
I Love You Jennifer B is pop at its most baffling, but its considered arrangement keeps the album not just listenable, but thrilling, even as it dives off of various sonic cliffs into the unknown. ~ Fred Thomas