Labels: Moodswing
Review by: Mike Whelan
Jet By Day should be the perfect tonic to those individuals feeling ill, or at least having nothing to listen to, in the post-Braid era. This album almost pays homage to the sadly missed, defunct Chicago noise merchants.
I loved Braid like a dear uncle; “Frame And Canvas’ is one of my favourite albums. While listening to “The Feedback That Distracts Us’ I can tell that Jet By Day loved Braid as much as I did, if not more in fact. All the same Braid-like tricks are present, the shouty bits followed by quiet bits, the melodic guitars which change ever-so-quickly into crunching, chunky riffs, and also the fact that Jet By Day have not one, but two singers.
But Jet By Day don’t stop at just Braid. On “Framed’ they are as jangly as The Get Up Kids without the accompanying nasal whine and “Payoff’ comes “atcha like some kind of Fugazi-meets-Jawbox-in-a-mosh-pit thingy. Usually such obvious hero-worshipping would set my reviewing mode to “poke fun at,’ but Jet By Day carry the whole thing off by being, well, quite good. Firstly they manage to not take themselves too seriously, which is something to be admired. Although the lyrics do sometimes become trite, there are some tongue in cheek gems like “We may be lazy/But never uninspired” on “Go To The Docks.’
In a climate where everyone is just trying to copy the “in” sound Jet By Day, with their fiercely driving and layered sound, are a welcome relief.