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Matinee
Rating: 7.9 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
By Rick Sieber
A rising star in his native England, Jack Peñate has only just begun to register on America's musical radar, but the stateside release of "Matinee" (his full-length debut) should soon even things up. The sheer ebullience of album-opener "Spit at Stars" quickly establishes Peñate's pop template, pairing manic catchiness with mouthfuls of South London verbiage in a smile-inducing call to just keep on pushing. Before we can catch our breath, Jack's sinking his teeth into the next impossibly buoyant track -- "Got My Favourite" -- a strummy jazz-pop gem about looking sharp and feeling good, worthy of prime Aztec Camera. One track after another offers up similar delights; forced to choose a favorite I'd go with the soulful jitter of "Learning Lines," but there's really not a dud in the bunch. Not unlike the pre-Attractions Elvis Costello (indeed, one can easily imagine the young Costello singing or writing nearly all of these songs), Peñate exhibits a facility with diverse pop styles (ska, rockabilly, pop balladry, blue-eyed soul), a way with a clever lyric ("I made a meal of it and stumbled/we both knew that my cookie crumbled"), and an ability to somehow sound fresh, confident, and unique in a pop world where it's all been done before. The slick production and sock-hop dance-ability of much of this music means many of the songs initially come off as trifles, and some never move very far beyond that, but Peñate is capable of moments of surprisingly deep emotion and brainy lyricism beneath the catchy gloss. Equally adept with big themes ("When We Die") and small details (musical travelogue "Torn on the Platform") his is an especially knowing pop, embracing the music's physical pull, foregrounding its energy and accessibility, and crafting detailed lyrics with rare wit and depth to boot.
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