Considering how they used to create percussion from the sound of sawing wood and had the lead singer’s Dad on guitar, Mystery Jets are certainly a different proposition to the bunch of oddballs that first emerged from Eel Pie Island with dreams of being Pink Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson and Yes all at once. With Chris Thomas (Pulp, Sex Pistols, Roxy Music) as producer, third album, Serotonin, sees them take to the next level the shimmering, synth-drenched pop sound they alluded to in parts of their previous record, Twenty One.
Whether it is within the hooks and soaring chorus of opener Alice Springs or the soft rock of It’s Too Late To Talk there is heartbreak and yearning aplenty throughout Serotonin, but, rather than being delivered mournfully, it is done with upbeat charm. The romance may be doomed, but it is romance nonetheless and almost joyous in its chasteness. “Better to have loved and lost than to have lived and never loved anyone/ I'd stand in the line of fire for you/ I'd bend over backwards for you/ I'd do anything that you want me to do/ ’Cos I don't have nothing if I don't have you/ My love/ And it hurts cos it’s true.”
So catchy are their tunes, the Brits really deserve to be much bigger than they are and this polished offering might just take them into the consciousness of the mainstream. While its big-hitting songs don’t better the singles that Twenty One boasted, Serotonin is the band’s most well-rounded offering to date and bursts with guts, heart and honesty. Good as it is though, in its slickness it lacks some of the ramshackle appeal of their first two albums, and let’s hope that, in reaching a wider audience, Mystery Jets don’t completely eradicate their envelope-pushing quirkiness. After all, the ability to combine glorious pop sensibilities and genuine peculiarity is something that should be celebrated.
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