Review

Jockstrap

I Love You Jennifer B

Rough Trade • 2022

Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye already attracted a lot of attention with their first singles and EPs and now prove with their début album »I Love You Jennifer B« that all the praise was more than justified.  Their vital and fresh sound is characterised by surprising twists and turns that cut across all genres and deliberately blatant breaks between Ellery’s variable, powerful vocals and Skye’s idiosyncratic, fearless production style.  Jockstrap sound like a cross between the completely over-the-top 100 Gecs, the experimental The Books or even The Knife, as well as somewhat tamer indie pop by, say, The Dø.  As a prime example, the single and album highlight »Concrete Over Water« could be mentioned – or even the opener »Neon«:  after a quiet beginning consisting of just vocals and acoustic guitar, a minimalist beat with wobble synth and ghost voices kicks in before a distorted guitar riff and blatantly overdriven lo-fi drums break over the song – all this before the 2-minute mark has been passed.  This is how it continues for almost three quarters of an hour: scraps from Bollywood soundtracks combined with weird vocal samples (»Jennifer B«), 80s disco with grand piano, mushy strings and strange effects (»Greatest Hits«), harp-dominated ballads (»Angst«), M.I.A.-esque rap interludes over Persian flute melodies (»Debra«) – the list goes on… In a nutshell: This is what contemporary pop sensibility sounds like in the age of ADHD!