Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B

Released: 09/09/22

The hotly anticipated debut from London-based duo Jockstrap is a mercurial delight, taking in influences (to these ears, anyway) as diverse as Tortoise, Sophie, Björk, Deerhoof, Mouse On Mars, Burt Bacharach, Saint Etienne, Julia Holter, and countless others, meaning that songs often end up in wildly a different place from where they started. Take Concrete Over Water, for example, which starts out as delicate, Joanna Newsom-esque baroque pop before tacking hard into avant-electronica weirdness à la Holly Herndon.

Understandably, very few bands undertake such a project, as a) it requires phenomenal musical and production skills, and b) it runs the risk of sounding like a disjointed mess. Remarkably, singer (and string arranger) Georgia Ellery and producer Taylor Skye manage to skilfully thread the needle, so that the genre hopping always sounds cohesive “ and always sounds like Jockstrap. Undoubtedly one of the best debut LPs of the last few years, I Love You Jennifer B is a thrill from beginning to end.