Jody and the Jerms - Liberation (JATJ Records)

Jody and the Jerms know their way around a pop tune, that’s for sure. And when I say that, I’m not talking about the modern idea of what that means; believe me when I say that this is no dance-routine-driven, lip-synched, obligatory guest rapper, digital dross. Far from it, this is the pop sound of my formative years, when pop music still had bravado and bite, when it was shot through with rock energy and alternative grooves, grooves built out of dexterous bass lines and buoyant beats rather than some sampled slice of another artist’s work. Pop music of the type made by The Darling Buds, The Primitives, and more recently, rising stars, The Lottery Winners.

And “Liberation” is their latest example of what they do so well. Pop harmonies dance over staccato rock riffs and busy backbeats, energies ebb and flow to create fantastic dynamics, and the whole thing begs you to spin and groove and dance like a loon.

If music is cyclical, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that it is, then perhaps Jody and the Jerms are the embodiment of the wheel going full circle, a sound that was forged in the eighties high point of New Pop which is now back in a modern guise.

I’m not saying that they are the saviors of pop music, but…yes, actually, I am saying that; Jodie and the Jerms just might prove to be precisely that, or at least the instigators of a whole new wave of more honest and authentic chart-accessible sounds. Fingers crossed.

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