This year, for MattA75's annual "I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours" write-off, I got paired with DrFaustus. I decided to send him Neon Nights Electric Lives by the Static Age in the hopes of showing people in other states that Vermont has more to offer than smelly hippie jam bands. In return, he sent me Spilt Milk by the Jellyfish, a short-lived power pop outfit from San Francisco. While not completely my cup of tea, I found much of this early-'90s, hidden gem to be enjoyable.
Sure, I like most of my music fairly loud. Punk, metal, even some hip hop - I like adrenaline. But I also don't mind a bit of poppy pleasures every now and then. I have some guilty pleasures and others I feel no shame in liking. Still, it took me some time to get into Spilt Milk. It seemed cheesy at first, but I pressed on and kept it in the car stereo for days at a time. Gradually, the songs began growing on me, and eventually I was digging just about all of them.
The Jellyfish's influences aren't hard to detect. There is a strong flavor of Queen, due mainly to the harmonic backing vocals. The pop-rock cheeriness of the Beatles and the Beach Boys also makes it way into this album's sound. But the Jellyfish don't seem to be into making perfectly catchy and memorable songs like the bands I just mentioned. Instead, they go for more experimentation in the verses, often leaving the chorus to beef up the song.
It takes a few tracks before I start enjoying this album. Joining a Fan Club seems like it would be a strong number, but I don't feel it flows well enough. The melding of rock and pop isn't very seamless on this track, nor is it on the next one Sebrina, Paste, and Pluto. This one has a sunshiny, Beach Boys-like chorus ("So serene/ Sebrina makes me feel so serene") that's too sappy for me to enjoy having had stuck in my head recently. The rest of the song sounds too much like children's music to take seriously, and the random insertion of some English kid's voice saying someone about sandwiches is just plain annoying. Though I'm not impressed with the album's start, things do improve later on.
New Mistake is a great song with a punchy, well-timed chorus. I feel it's good enough to have been a pop-rock hit while still maintaining enough variation from the norm to remain interesting. Too Much, Too Little, Too Late contains the album's most infectious hook even if the verses don't match up well enough to make the song as strong as it could be. The Ghost At Number One is more consistently interesting, staying peppy throughout. Bye Bye Bye is a lot of fun: its incredibly catchy chorus is wrapped inside a bouncy beat that makes you feel like you're partying in a foreign land.
Vocalist Andy Sturmer does well at showing his range on this album. While in most songs, he maintains a similar level, he does take it to other ends of the spectrum. The band strips down their sound for Glutton of Sympathy, resulting in a more emotive, heartfelt song that's simple but not sparse. Russian Hill is even softer yet still effective. But Sturmer and the rest show they can rock out quite a bit in All Is Forgiven, a harder yet somewhat jarring track on which Sturmer lets out some growls without deviating from the power pop sound.
After quite a few listens, I can say that there is a lot to like on Spilt Milk. For me, this album borders on guilty pleasure and just plain enjoyable, but I can see this being a favorite for many people. The Jellyfish exhibit a lot of talent - through the vocals, the instruments, and the orchestral sounds they use to enhance the theatrics of many songs. Fans of the more poppy side of rock would do well to check this band out. Their music is catchy and pleasant but much more creative than a lot of what gets onto the radio these days. Harder rock fans like myself might need a little effort in getting into it, but overall, Spilt Milk is an album many can enjoy and should check out.
DrFaustus, thanks for the tip. I'll keep this one around for those times when the heaviness gets to be too much and I need a little power pop.
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