Search - Jets to Brazil :: Perfecting Loneliness

Failing to relive past glories.

10/25/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Before I review this album, I would like to preface the review: Yes, I am only giving this album three stars. I do this in an effort to allow consumers to make educated choices, and not purchase albums that they might dislike because positive reviews are over-represented on amazon. I understand that rating an album less than 5 stars opens me up to being plagued by "not helpful" ratings for this review, but I feel that it is important that people be able to make informed choices.That being said, Perfecting Loneliness is a perfectly ok album. It's completely enjoyable, it has a pleasant sound to it, and yes, in today's emo-friendly music world, it's commercially viable. But it's underniably worse than the band's master-peice debut album Orange Rhyming Dictionary, which had better songs and better arrangments. This album tries to avoid the pitfalls of the band's follow up to Orange Rhyming Dictionary, the mellower Four Cornered Night, by opening with a few strong, driving pop rock numbers ("The Frequency," "You're the one I want"). These songs succeed on only the most basic level. The problem with them is that their talented singer, Blake, never gets to rock out. The Frequency builds to the point where Blake should be screaming and shouting the final chorus, but instead the feeble proction merely settles for distorting his vocals and placing them higher in the mix. I'm sorry, but you can't fake rocking out with studio gimmics, you have to actually rock out.Ultimately the album drags, and Blakes conversational lyrics are hit or miss (they have a tendency to fall back on very obvious rhymes, a habit that one might find particularly abrasive.) Likewise, we live in a wonderful time musically when artists like Bright Eyes and Cursive can seemlessly incorporate instruments like cellos into their sound, which makes the keyboard orchestration on this album sound corny.Will fans of Jawbreaker like this album? Probably not, this isn't the same Blake that you knew before.
Will fans of Jets To Brazil like this album? Yes, it's a return to the sound on the band's first album, and even though it's not as impressive, it's still enjoyable.
Will fans of emo music like this album? Yeah, this is easily as good as something like the Promise Ring or anything else on Jade Tree.
Will fans of the rock rivival like this album? Lord no, it doesn't rock.
Will fans of challenging, complex music like this album? Nope, there's nothing innovative about this.
Do I like the album? Yeah, it's ok... but given it's flaws and general mediocrity I couldn't possibly recommend it, and I really don't want any body to purchase the album based on false hype only to be disappointed."

Some kids here say they wanna dance

joshua m davis | alton, md | 01/02/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Jets to Brazil's third album "Perfecting Loneliness," plays like a sonic photo album full of conflicted love songs. "The band's on hold / cuz your shoulders make me cold," sings frontman Blake Schwarzenbach on the record's second cut, "You're the One I Want." On following tracks he states, "in the long black eternity / I loved you so perfectly," "the milk of kindness is behind us now," "it's beautiful and sad / but it's all that I have," and "I'm gonna make a record / so I never forget / what I wrecked." The band behind him plays perfectly through the quieter, acoustic and piano driven lullabies like "Further North," into the rollicking, sardonically upbeat "William Tell Override." They steal riffs from Oasis and the Guess Who (Psalm, William Tell) and reggae-punk beats from the clash (Perfecting Loneliness) without losing their identities. Jets even addresses their own cult/fame status, forking songs like "The Frequency" ("all the city kids / the angry with-it kids / hate everything") with the title track, ("the radio is playing our tune / I love it could you turn it down?") and the politically bent "Disgrace" (no one's rocking the boat and some kids here say they wanna dance"). Nor is religion ("God is dumb / God is great / but does he love us all the same?") or the presidency ("they put a monkey in the white house / and his uncle in the movies") spared. But romantic issues are still at the forefront here, and the music reflects that. The band evokes the better moments of Buffalo Tom and Cracker now much more than they do an indie rock super group. "I came this close to being me," sings Schwarzenbach on the album's closer, the gorgeous Lennonesque "Rocket Boy." Jets to Brazil no longer sound like the sum of their formidable parts, but rather they are their own beast now, "perfecting loneliness / till nothing's holding us," they sing, "we could be the first.""

A Great New JTB CD

11/22/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The opening track, "The Frequency," is an immediate stand-out, with impressive similies such as "always writing against this truth / in the way that a painter must have a surface to hit" and it is followed by "You're the One I Want," perhaps one of the catchiest songs ever scripted by Blake. As the album progresses, the songs begin to slow down, although there are a few other amazing ballads, like the title track, Perfecting Loneliness. "Wish List" is an up-beat but quiet song, with entertaining conversational lyrics.The slow songs are best summarized by the song Psalm: a slow, melancholy, introspective piece, with lyrics such as "God is dumb / God is great / but does He love us all the same? / are we ok?" Maybe not your thing, but dismissing these words as trite or uninspired would be offensive to their pure and contemplative nature.Finally, the record closes with some increase of volume, and songs like "Autumn Walker" and "William Tell Override" take advantage of simplistic rhymes which coordinate themselves cleanly with the punch of the songs (when I took it to the man / he said "We're doing all we can" / he shook my hand). These songs are followed by the closing "Rocket Boy," an enigmatic song about a young man living half a life.In conclusion, this is an excellent new album from Jets to Brazil. The songs fit together cohesively but, at the same time, I do find a few of the slow failing to distinguish themselves during my listens. Furthermore, the lyrics are once again good, but not as blatantly impressive as Blake has written in the past. Some of these lyrics are less aimed at dazzling the listener and more aimed at provoking thought. Overall, I would certainly recommend this album to any patient listener. I give it a full rating of 5, although I must state that it's no Orange Rhyming Dictionary (it's not trying to be) and, although drawing comparisons might be wrong, this album does not approach Orange Rhyming Dictionary on my list of favorites."