Jejune – This Afternoons Malady (1998)

If your idea of a good album includes these critera:

• 55 minutes long
• indie pop / emo / rock
• Superchunk mixed with Christie Front Drive mixed with Rainer Maria

then you'll fall over yourself to acquire this one. Wow. This is slightly good. Jejune mix up some absolutely gorgeous, slow indie pop tunes with slightly more agressive tracks on "This Afternoons Malady" to produce an album that within a week or so I suspect will be amongst my favouritest ever. Opener "Morale Is Low" is a perfect example of what they are all about. Arabella and Joe harmonise beautifully over slow, jangly guitar pop to steal your heart, then in comes a huge chorus full of surging guitars to lift you up, up and away.

I have to admit that my favourite parts of the album are the lighter songs. Title track "This Afternoons Malady" is a total indie pop gem, as inoffensive and innocent as you like. Perfection. So I kinda get a little annoyed when the more rocking numbers are on, not that they are bad! Far from it, Jejune's emo rock efforts are far and away better than most others of the genre. It's just that the total dreaminess of the slow songs sends me to another place altogether. Not too sure about the occasional rock solo they chuck in either, seems a little out of place, but at least it's original! And who can argue with a lyric like: "I'll hold your hand because you rock"? Nobody.

Unequalable on the album is "Fixed On The One". Total sleepytime indie pop combines with defeatist sounding vocals from Arabella to have a funny effect on me. It all goes rock in the middle, but bare with it through the loud times till you get the prettiness back again. Two of the other best songs are the final tracks, "One Transmission" and "Same To You". The former is an epic exercise in taking the floaty Christie Front Drive sound and doing your own thing with it, the latter a little like one of those early Rainer Maria 4 track recordings.

Super cool dream-pop / rock for us kids with nothing better to do than think about stuff that has nothing to do with day to day 'real life'. Practically an hours worth (well, if you want 60 minutes programme "Fixed On The One" to play twice) of wussy rock genius. Awesome.

Andy Malcolm

collective-zine.co.uk

Jejune – This Afternoons Malady (1998) 320kbps