Mystery Jets – Twenty One

• 26th Mar 2008

Mystery Jets keep their cards close to their chest in the run up to the release of their sophomore effort, with reviewers only receiving a five track sampler of new album, twenty one.

And what a five tracks they are, opening with recent single, Young Love, a sentimental one night stand story that seems to ring and shimmer with soulful sixties undertones. The song feels slightly out of season, filled with a wistful sunshine that should make this a sleeper hit of the festival season and assert Mystery Jets as a band that should not be missed. The warmth and vibrance continues with Half in Love with Elizabeth as it bounces along with madcap chanting, another bittersweet account of youthful relationships, striking between a moving lament and jaunty, excitable abundance of energy.

Flakes slows the pace and bares its bones with tremendous melancholy, while other tracks provide a joyful musical distraction contrary to the lyrical content, Flakes does the exact opposite and strips back to reveal its true emotions, occasionally and gloriously building and swelling into a sound reminiscent of the Phil Spector helmed productions of The Ronnetes.

Flirting with a playful approach to music making and seemingly sidestepping too much unwanted pigeon-holing seems to be a trick they are well versed in, some tracks shine with a retro sixties vibe but Girl Next Door propels their sound forward two decades and mixes their happy-go-lucky indie troubadouring with a brazen new-wave pop sound akin to A-Ha, while this musical bastardisation may trigger revulsion in print, it strangely appeals in practise, like a lost eighties gem, even if it is a guilty pleasure.

The sampler wraps with the brooding Behind The Bunhouse with its slow build and haunting sparse atmospherics before the pace picks up again with a rustic, country tinged sound that eases into a ramshackle barn dance percussion. Another nifty example of Mystery Jets fidgety and shifting sound that refuses to sit still.

And if this is just a taster of what to expect than all seems to bode very well for the full release when it arrives.