Jockstrap’s crazy debut album is definitely an AOTY contender.
As much as I’ve enjoyed the recent wave of wacky London spoken-word
post-punk bands, the market has been getting a little saturated recently. It’s
time for a new type of wacky London band to emerge – one just like Jockstrap. They’re
an experimental duo made up of singer-violinist Georgia Ellery (also a member
of Black Country, New Road) and electronic producer Taylor Skye. Their exciting genre-bending
sound is hard to put into words, but I will try my best (because otherwise what
would be the point of this review?).
Both classically trained musicians, Georgia and Taylor met
at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2016 where they formed Jockstrap. The
band were inspired by Tchaikovsky, who famously wore nothing but a jockstrap
while composing. Okay, I made that up – they actually chose the name simply for
the ‘gross shock factor', and just like their rambunctious sound it seems to be a
rebellion against their classical roots.
Their first two EPs saw them trying everything from experimental
hip hop jams to piano pop ballads. On their debut album I Love You Jennifer
B, they’ve come a bit closer to forming a core sound – an electronic indie
hybrid that sounds like Regina-Spektor-meets-Arca with maybe a hint of
Radiohead. Throw some Bollywood strings in there too. Did I mention there’s a
90s rave tune in the mix? Basically, their music is just as chaotic as it was
before.
And that’s kinda what makes this album so damn fun: you
haven’t the foggiest idea where each track is going to take you. Most of the
tracks start off similarly in a soft and twinkly twee pop manner, but then take
an unexpected turn. Opening track ‘Neon’ for example suddenly dives into an
abrasive section of distorted guitars and industrial drums. ‘Concrete Over
Water’ throws in a squiggly synth drop topped with some military snare. And as
already briefly alluded to, ‘Debra’ turns into a Bollywood score with Kill Bill
sirens.
Other tracks are a bit more uniform in their sound such as
‘Greatest Hits’ (which sounds like a lost Donna Summer hit from the 80s)
and ‘50/50’ (which is a Prodigy-flavoured rave number). However, they’re still far
from predictable. While there are no wild genre shifts, ‘Greatest Hits’ still has
some pretty warped production and out-there lyrics (e.g. ‘Imagine I’m thee
Madonna/ Dressed in blue/ No! dressed in PINK!’), while ‘50/50’ launches
into a surprise breakdown of descending chopped vocals topped with one of I Love You Jennifer B’s catchiest hooks: ‘I gotta go, gotta think about that (she’s
50/50!)’.
Such albums like this can run the risk of sounding too
scatterbrain, but I think Georgia Ellery’s voice and lyrics hold it together. While
she does play around with her vocal delivery a lot on this album, her Regina-Spektor-like whisper-sung delivery is still the default and it helps ground the constantly
morphing production. The lyrics throughout meanwhile seem to be about coming of
age with recurring themes of sex. In fact, there’s a surprising amount of twisted
sexual encounters in these lyrics from ‘for the first time/ I like it when
he's inside’ in ‘Greatest Hits' to ‘I touch myself every time I see what’s
missing from my life’ in Glasgow. This theme of confused horniness helps to
tie together the tracks, while also matching their hectic energy. In fact, many
of the tracks feel like confused sexual adventures in that they’re both
pleasurable and alarming at the same time.
Of course, the thing that really makes this genre-meddling
album so great is that fact that Jockstrap are able to expertly pull off each
style of music they delve into, while also bringing something new in each case.
It doesn’t feel like they’re amateurishly taking stabs at different genres, or
trying hard to mimic certain artists. Instead, they’re able to take their
wide range of influences and take them to places you never imagined. This results
in a lot of thrills, and has me excited to see where they’ll go next.
★★★★★
TRACK TASTER: