If I said that the new self-titled album from Jeanines, out this Friday on Slumberland Records, was some long-lost record from 1986 found in a vault somewhere recently, I think I could get away with it. I mean, Jeanines is so note-perfect in its replication of the sounds of the C86 era that it's downright spooky. Still, the New York band earn points for making this work so effectively, and for having the chutzpah to offer up 16 songs in 26 minutes.
Now, Jeanines is a short album but it's a wildly-enjoyable one. "Hits the Bone", for instance, has a nice, faintly stomping insistence about it, one that suggests The Kinks as much as it does something like Shop Assistants, while "Either Way" is joyfully tuneful, like the sort of track that The Primitives offered up on those early Lazy Records recordings. Elsewhere, "Too Late" is sassy-pop, equal parts girl group stuff and early Mary Chain, while "All The Same" owes what seems a huge debt to Slumberland Records honcho Mike Schulman's own Black Tambourine from way back when, as does "Is It Real", the album closer.
Look, Jeanines are not re-inventing the wheel here, but they are doing this so extremely well that it would be churlish to fault them for anything. I mean, there are more hooks in these 26 minutes than in most lengthy alternative rock albums these days, and I'd certainly like to hear music like this, so reminiscent of the glory days of U.K. indie-pop more than I'd want to hear just about anything else. Jeanines packs a whole lot to love in a concise package, and as architects of pop joy, Alicia and Jed deserve a whole lot of praise, and a truckload of respect.
Jeanines drops on Friday from Slumberland Records, and you can order it here.
More details on Jeanines via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Slumberland Records]