Just in time for their Saturday CD release show, we tackle the candy that is Jukebox the Ghosts's debut album. Can we have an "amen"? Or at the very least a "wheeee"?
Rating system
0 stars - Complete and utter garbage
1 star - Best just not to ever press play, save your ears for another day
2 stars - Not completely atrocious, but one you'll probably forget about as soon as it's over
3 stars - Good, but not great, likely with some excellent songs and others you'll skip right through
4 stars - Damn good album, one you'll definitely want to enjoy again and again
5 stars - Instant Classic
When a piano plays a prominent role in your band and your lead singer’s voice sounds a lot like Ben Folds (like Ben Thornewill does here), it’s tough not to get compared to, well, Ben Folds. On their full-length debut, Let Live and Let Ghosts, local boys Jukebox the Ghost show some serious promise, but also prove they’re not quite ready to step into the national spotlight, yet. The album’s best moments come when the band sounds the least like Mr. Folds, but they seem intent on not giving up his influence quite yet.
The album’s first half is simply stellar. Infectious opener “Good Day” rides a fantastic piano riff and pounding drums into a chorus so catchy that it’ll get stuck in your head even if you can’t decipher the lyrics. “Hold It In” carries a similar vibe while pushing the piano further back into the mix and relying heavily on Tommy Siegel’s driving guitar. The album’s highlight comes at its eeriest point, on “Miss Templeton’s 7000th Dream,” which puts dark vocals atop a sparse piano while the music builds the tension around it. Just as I started to hope the song would continue far beyond it’s one minute, thirty-eight seconds, I realized the song existed not only as an excellent tune on its own, but also as an introduction to “Static to the Heart,” the album’s most original, and best song. It’s darker, quirkier and less finely structured than the rest of the album and I found myself wishing that the band has explored this sound a bit further.
Instead of elaborating upon the strengths of the first half of the album, however, the second half of Let Live and Let Ghosts stays in much safer territory and slowly starts to lose the attention of the listener, while drawing more and more on the material of you-know-who. By album closer, “A Matter of Time,” I couldn’t get the comparison out of my head. “Victoria” and “Lighting Myself on Fire” are solid, straightforward rockers, but don’t hit the highs that earlier highlights touched upon. “My Heart’s the Same” strikes out into slower territory than the rest of the album, and is a welcome change of pace, but the song never quite takes off like I expected it to.
These three guys are immensely talented and excellent songwriters and if they could just blaze their own path a bit more and emulate their influences a bit less, they could become the next D.C. band to turn into a national craze (a la Le Loup and Georgie James). I have a feeling that whatever they come up with next is going to give them that final push into stardom, just give it another year or so.
3 stars
God loves a cheerful giver.
this band is absolutely awful. no care.
cough (jealous) cough.
"absolutely awful" is a stretch, even if you're not into this type of music. jukebox is a great band. I agree though, that it's hard to listen to a whole album of them straight through.
about as jealous as i am of your band, marty.
After 5 years of listening to my ipod on random I can no longer stomach listening to ANY album all the way through.
Oooh, good comeback Adam! (jk... douchebag)
coming from a douchebag "DJ" ill take that as a compliment. no talent hack..
and please stop spamming the 930 board. run along and play 80's dress up now!!
case in point
"My heart's the same" never takes off like it should? It sure does in their live show --- I can't imagine it's any different on the record. I'll be picking up a copy on saturday, and I'll be surprised if you're right.
I heart Jukebox. I want to fold Tommy up and take him home in my pocket.
Congrats, Jukebox, on the negative comments! I think that means you've made it!
ah yes... a slight backlash from naysayers. that must mean you are doing something right!
DC loves you Jukebox the Ghost. Saturday will be superb... can't wait to get the full length!
I think that they are certainly gifted and talented musicians but they're just following in the footsteps of what has been done already. If they were to break up tomorrow, no one would remember them in five years. To their credit though, they are a young band with a lot of promise and it'll be interesting to see what their next statement is. It is a nice change of pace to the many tired horses that are just hanging around DC drinking from the same old bucket.
Cheers,
-Martin
Ben Thornewill needs to be the center peice of this band! The show at the Black Cat left many fans and new listeners questioning their dance motives...being that Tom's "3 part song" was a huge lengthy stretch that was hard to follow and almost entirely undancable
More of their songs need to be like "Good Day"....simpler, more centered around the piano and Bens voice. All and all this band really has some potential to be an exciting and great DC band to see and hear.
I welcome objections
- Support DC Music -
Victoria sounded AMAZING on the Woxy live broadcast! http://www.softcitylights.com/
Though I admit the live recording rocks harder than it does on the CD--they don't need another year---just need to get back in the studio!!
Jukebox the Ghost fan here in NYC -- apologies for crashing the blog being up north and all. At any rate, I love these guys. They played a few free shows in CMJ to get the attention of the Lower East Side music scene.
Just for record, Ben Folds plays it safe. Ben T. and Co. actually take risks with their music vibe. Just because both play piano doesn't make him a copy cat, no talent hack.
Oh and Martin's comment, "if they broke up, no would remember them" cracked me up. They've had one EP and their first album just released. Give 'em a break dude, no one said they were legends already.