JAWS - Simplicity

Rating:

JAWS have come back swinging - maybe the darkness is the tonic they’ve needed all along.

Youthfully dreaming of life on the road is something every band in a garage dreams of. For JAWS, the fever-rush that came with their opening gambit ‘Be Slowly’ brought its own pitfalls and dilemmas. It’s something they’ve confronted with its follow-up ‘Simplicity’, a dense and powerful memory-slide of distant dreaming for a generation under attack.

Beefed up and packed with a far heavier punch than its predecessor, ‘Simplicity’ is the sound of a band truly becoming their own. Opener ‘Just A Boy’ is a ferocious spiral that’ll wrap you up into a tight ball on first listen, whilst ‘Right In Front Of Me’ distinctive post-punk growl marks a band truly getting to the guts of the music they want to make. Sounding far more mature and with a key identity in their minds, it’s the sound of a band on a mission to make a rich body of work, one that stands shoulders above anything they’ve done before.

When JAWS truly hit their stride, the results are staggering. ’17’’s confident drawl is the type you’d witness closing out an acclaimed film soundtrack, with ‘On The Sunshine’ and ‘Cast’ triggering starry-eyed glazes that are hard to shake off. Sitting alongside the tight punches of ‘What We Haven’t Got Yet’ and the pristine gleams that shine off the closing hooks in ‘The Invisible Sleep’ - you’ve got a record that knows its own skin and revels in the highs and lows that it’s willing to engulf itself in.

JAWS have come back swinging - maybe the darkness is the tonic they’ve needed all along. Jamie Muir