Aug 15 2008 11:40 am,
Jaguar Love
‘Take Me To The Sea’
(Matador)
If you read each clause carefully, the indie rock rule book decrees that only one act forming from the ashes of another’s demise shall succeed. So the remaining members of the recently disbanded Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves better get creating because Johnny Whitney, Cody Votolato and Jay Clark are to a very good thing with Jaguar Love. ‘Take Me To The Sea’ is the Portland-based trio’s debut release together, combining stormy riffs with pummelled rhythms, keyboards, unabashedly poppy choruses and Whitney’s famously high-pitched vocals. And those previously put off by the singer’s past ferocious shrieks and screams are in luck with his latest musical incarnation as he varies his delivery throughout, for the first time even taking on ballads such as ‘Georgia’ and ‘Bone Trees And A Broken Heart’ with genuinely rather lovely results. A unique and frequently intriguing listen.
Camilla Pia
