Photo: Press
From Making Dens through to Twenty One through to Radlands, Mystery Jets have always boasted a sound worthy of the biggest band on the planet. Beloved by many worldwide but yet to achieve the true stratospheric success they deserve, they're back with their hotly-anticipated new album.
To launch the record and raoadtest new songs, Blaine and the boys performed a special fan-only show in London.
Released on 22 January, Curve Of The Earth can't come soon enough. Here are five things we learned from their sneaky full album play through at the ICA last night.
1) Indie rock is the new indie pop
The playful indie-pop kookiness of breakthrough record Twenty One is now firmly of the past, with the fuller, more textured sounds of Radlands being catapulted into full-blown progressive, psychedelic territory. Reverb, ethereal sounds and hazy silhouettes are the order of the day. But, just like a first love, the unmistakeable identity remains in other ways - Blaine Harrison and William Rees’ vocals as distinctive as ever.
2) William Rees comes of age
Whisper it quietly, but it feels like this new direction plays right into the hands of loyal guitarist Rees, whose grittier tones add particular weight to ‘Saturine’. Filled with introspective melancholy, the track laments that ‘'to be famous and thin is the age that we live in”.
3) It’s not all guitars…
Curve of the Earth is a record made with its net cast wide, and it shows as Harrison takes to the keys on ‘Blood Red Balloon’, the first of many introspective, highly personal numbers looking back on the tempestuousness of youth.
4) The 80s rule
Taylor Swift has laid claim to 1989, but Harrison is keen on trademarking his own birth year 1985 – yes, he’s hit the big three-oh – with a track exposing his sense of vulnerability and hunger to keep the flame burning. It’s aggressive, yet delicate, and one to look out for.
Watch our interview with Mystery Jets discussing their new album below
5) New material is, well, new
Even experienced rockers get first night nerves, ‘I've fucked up the lyrics hold on’, admitted Blaine early on in the set. We’ll forgive him, he might still have that girl from two doors down stuck in his head.
The Mystery Jets played:
Telomere
Bombay Blue
Bubblegum
Midnight’s Mirror
1985
Blood Red Balloon
Taken By the Tide
Saturine
The End Up
