Perfecting Loneliness
finds
Jets to Brazil
continuing their trajectory from
Jawbreaker
to
Orange Rhyming Dictionary
Four Cornered Night
. With this outing, the band develops their
folk-pop
repertoire via a set of summer-tinged, bittersweet memories. With deeper instrumentation, undone piano melodies, and larger-than-life orchestration,
Schwarzenbach
and company manage to turn intimate observations into moments of transcendent grandeur -- and while the album might not sound exactly like
Nick Drake
, the effect is the same. It's an emotional journey for sure, as songs like
"Psalm"
drift into the territory reserved for the likes of
James Taylor
. But
maintains just enough
rock
crunch to keep the album driving. It's not all gloomy and glum --
"Autumn Walker"
and
"William Tell Override"
still seethe with the
punk-pop
power of
Huesker Due
Sugar
and a relentlessly optimistic groove. But the final song,
"Rocket Boy,"
is the most ambitious, and it will leave listeners welling up with nostalgia and yearning. ~ Charles Spano