Vinyl giveaway details at the end of the review.
jj
jj nº 3
Secretly Canadian
out March 9th
81 /100
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Rate jj’s jj nº 3
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Rating: 7.4/10 (8 votes cast)
jj are, intentionally, a fairly mysterious band. The duo seemed to appear out of nowhere earlier last year, producing blissfully sweet indie pop that had immediate appeal. In a year when Animal Collective and Dirty Projectors were moving experimental sensibilities toward the mainstream, jj sounded like they were headed in the opposite direction. It’s a vision that has steered them well thus far, and they’ve stuck with it on their sophomore release. It is easy to imagine the songs on jj n°3 as avant garde house remixes of bubblegum pop tunes.
The band, rather than pushing their pseudo-derivative mainstream pop inclinations into the background, confront and embrace them immediately on jj n°3. Opening track “My Life” covers Lil Wayne’s autotuned chorus from The Game’s song of the same name – the lyrics of which are drawn from Birdman’s “So Tired” – before concluding with the ubiquitous chorus from ATC’s techno megahit “Around the World,” which itself was a cover of Ruki Vverh’s “Pesenka.” Re-read that sentence and try to process it, I dare you. In equation form:

Or something like that. I think calculus might get involved somewhere along the line. Regardless, the point is that it’s a bit of a curveball of a first track that certainly encapsulates the diversity of influences convergent in jj’s music. “My Life” kicks the album off on a strange note, sure, but that note – however out-of-left-field it may be – does not linger for long. (more…)