Nowhere is the futility of kitchen magnet pigeonholing more apparent than in that lovable subsection of popular music commonly referred to by that three-letter E word I'm going to refrain from using for the remainder of this write-up. Just as rock of the independent variety had fans, writers, and PR employees shoving twee-ness like East River Pipe into the same overfilled nook with rabid madmen like the Jesus Lizard, so would the E word attempt to cover more musical ground than one might consider reasonable. A quick check of fourfa.com (a noble attempt to make sense of this madness) would have visitors believe that just about anything from Rites Of Spring to Cap'n Jazz to even The Strokes qualifies as-- OK, I'll say it-- emo. That's a lot of area to lay claim to, and it does little more than turn that E word into a mutt-like descriptor-- the term refers to so many things, it ends up referring to nothing. That doesn't do a group like the Jealous Sound any favors.
In its current configuration, The Jealous Sound features former members of Knapsack, Sunday's Best, Jawbox and Shudder to Think (those last 2 groups are part of the litany thanks to drummer Adam Wade, but Wade didn't even drum on this record). In this instance, the key precedent to take note of is Knapsack-- that's the voice of former backpacker Blair Shehan singing lines like "There was a guy/ Making a plan/ Find a girl/ And she'd understand." Yeah, yeah, you think you know the drill-- MORE silly love songs?-- but then Shehan offers less obvious lines like, "Did you manage to forget / Did you tie the tourniquet?/ Forgive me for gushing." This is a cloyingly clever sample, but Shehan's decision to err on this side rather than on the clichéd and plainspoken "he said moon/ she said June\x94 side does the record a world of good.
Where these words might once have found themselves attached to a voice prone to tortured yelping and pre-pubescent cracking, they're now delivered by a raspy croak not too dissimilar from something off a Replacements record. Haters might want to point to the Goo Goo Dolls instead-- it's all about the indie cred with some folks-- but both comparisons would be equally appropriate. There's enough of a down-to-earth rock vibe on this record to keep the more mawkish moments from becoming overbearing. Besides, if you're already fond of the Superchunky basslines and synth blubbery on Kill Them With Kindness, it's doubtful that a little thing like who the singer sounds like will keep you from enjoying it.
And this actually is an enjoyable record-- a solid set of rock songs that hovers somewhere between the professionalism of Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American and your favorite slice of homegrown emotion. This assumes, of course, that you have an affinity for this stuff. If the thought of a band performing this heartfelt guitar-centric safety dance for a bunch of Doc Marteneers makes you want to shave your head and talk to yourself in mirrors, then please leave the Jealous Sound be and let me introduce you to a group of earnest young men calling themselves Dashboard Confessional.
