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They could've fallen out of a high-school locker in a John Hughes movie. They're the best Lou Pearlman demos you've never heard.
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As darkly elegant as that pairing might be, no 3 manages better when its somber front is married to blithe surrealism, a feat jj accomplishes with skill and regularity.
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This mysterious Swedish dream-pop band's music remains hazy--mucho echo, blurry harmonies, soft acoustic instrumentation buoyed by generous synth strings, and a bright white ambience suggesting both sunny Balearic beaches and blinding Scandinavian snowstorms. Yet its emotions are conversely vivid.
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It feels like a genuine use of the source material; not even as something conscious, like a person that travels around hoping to find new sounds, but rather as an act of dialectical eruption--the past naturally coming back in a different form.
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Essentially, jj have offered a more rounded, somewhat slicker version of what came before, and to the vast majority of listeners the comforting embrace it offers will be welcomed.
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Their third album in as many years, JJ continue to gather a pace and 'No.3' will surely propel them further into hearts and minds.
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MojoA restful, even romantic experience, Kastlander echoing Tracey Thorn's plaintive soul, in a beguiling confluence of wan Scando-folk currents and American hip hop. [June 2010, p. 97]
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Uncutjj No. 3 is an irresistibly light-headed trip through lush, electronic pop. [Jun 2010, p.91]
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Q MagazineIt's hard to quarrel with the 27-minute running time when every second is irresisitible. [Jun 2010, p.124]
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Their ability to re-create shrewd discordant pairings in a second set of simple pop songs and still leave fans uncertain as to whether the duo are cleverly cloying or cloyingly clever is what will keep listeners in suspense until the curtains have parted.
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The duo strays into territories of pop predictability with lines like "The music stops/And the music drops," but jj's sophomore effort is nonetheless charming and imaginative.
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Under The RadarIt's the explicit handcrafted quality, indie rocks's loose regulations on sharp and flat, and a charming naivete that jj continue to pull off, despite their winking appropriations. [Winter 2010, p.63]
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There's plenty of pleasant stuff to sink one's ears into on jj n 3. There's just not enough underneath it.
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Whether the dip in quality is the result of a rush to create new material or whether these are simply the lesser leftovers from the same sessions that produced N 2, here's hoping JJ take some time (and maybe one of those epically blissful vacations their music conjures so evocatively) to make sure N 4 comes out fully baked.
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On the one hand, no 3 can sound frustrating unfinished. It seems as though something substantially more satisfying would have been attained had the band just stuck with it for a while longer. On the other, it's an enjoyable enough distraction not without its merits. Just don't think of it as the proper progression from no 2.
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This album simply sounds like their first with inferior production and less-memorable songs.
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Late in the record, the perky "You Know" also stands up to the quality of jj n 2, but between these tracks is mostly B-side fare. It's a shame, but I don't get the sense listening to jj n 3 that jj's best work is behind them.
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jj no 3, in essence, fails to carry the same number of dimensions and, unfortunately, and perhaps unfairly, reduces jj to a hype machine.
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All residents of the genre are bound to appear lackluster in comparison, but that doesn't change the fact that jj n 3 could have been a strong album if it had been given a longer gestation period.
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jj struck a subtle and surprising balance with their debut, but this time around, they've withdrawn, letting their techniques dangle in the air, starving for justification. The effort is weaker for it.
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Far from implying that mind-expansion = mesmerising creativity, jj no 3 unfurls like it's going through the course of a drug-induced reaction.
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Ultimately, jj has the concept and the intrigue down; if only they could get their music to match.
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Mopey, twee, orchestral, downbeat--the duo cover all these bases in the flattest, most sophomoric way. Worse, though, is that the album sounds like a bunch of outtakes.