Labels: Jade Tree Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Took me 3 days, but eventually I got the title of this album right. It’s actually fully called “A Portable Model Of How Memory Works Example 2; Lets Make A List”.
Erm, right. JoA. So I finally got round to checking them out. I had heard they were weird. Then someone put me a song by them on a tape, and it was superb. So I bought the album. And the album is superb too.
Yup, they occasionally go off on these weird electronic instrumentals, but they fit in perfectly with the rest of the tracks. You know you got a goodun’ on your hands from the word go with first ‘real’ song, “Gin And Platonic” (love that title, more on JoA & words later). Totally jangly and slow, offbeat indie pop music. The word is: beautiful. American Football used a similar guitar sound on their Polyvinyl EP, but that’s mainly because Mike Kinsella is in both bands. And they use strings nicely too, not in a big orchestral stoopido Verve type way, but just to create a mood.
They don’t ever get much urge to ‘rock’, but tunes like “This Life Cumulative” do up the pace and noise a bit, but not all the way through. It’s also interspersed with a few electronic bleeps. And there is a superb bit right at the end of “God Bless America” where it sounds like the record has all gone wrong as funny noises whizz around, before it flows straight into final track, the Rainer Maria reminiscent “A Party Able Model Of”.
A big factor on whether you like the album or not will depend on how you like Tim Kinsella’s singing. He thrives upon not hitting the exact notes you’d be expecting, but again this just makes it endearing. Not perfect pop, just *perfect* pop. You might want to use the word pretencious around here at some point, but I won’t, as one person’s pretense is anothers genius. The latter.
Lyrically, a lot of the time they use play on words, and things seem to be put in because they sound good. It’s very poetic, and poems rarely seem to make much sense to me anyway. But then again, some of the other lyrics are just fantastical too.
A totally chilled, laidback and down right *nice* album. No self-respecting indie fan should be without a copy.