JAGUAR LOVE Take Me To The Sea (Matador) Rating: NNNN
Since this post-punk trio is made up of former members of the Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves, chances are they’re not gonna have a ton of difficulty getting their songs heard. With that in mind, riding on past successes will only get them so far. Good thing their debut album is so strong.
Wrapped up in a tidy 10 songs is an album full of kinetic exuberance, rawness and sweat that retains just enough of a pop sensibility to keep things both memorable and erratic. Singer Johnny Whitney’s delivery is frantic and fascinatingly volatile he yelps, croons and belts over top of complexly arranged guitar work that spontaneously jumps from subtlety to aggression. Worth checking out even of you don’t care about their previous bands.
