Every so often an artist or band comes along that I can’t help but like, yet have absolutely no idea why.

This isn’t exactly true of Jonny C Goode and The Bad Review. I can list a few reasons for liking them, although on paper none of these reasons quite add up to the amount that I seemingly like them.

At the time of writing I am yet to discover the correct adjective to describe this band; each of my attempts to accurately describe them have seemed either unnecessarily harsh or needlessly over-complimentary. I suppose you could argue that I should probably try to review this band and their album in more than a single word, which is a point I’ll now take entirely on board.

#2 is the band’s follow up to their debut album Maybe Later, released earlier on this year. I rather liked Maybe Later, it was a touchingly personal album that focused heavily around their charming front man. Happily, this has not changed and #2 is just as drenched in the delightful personality of Jonny Corvette. In 2010 it’s becoming increasingly rare that a band has a singer and lyricist who’s willing to place their voice and their lyrics at the forefront of the music, and I for one think this is a massive shame. Jonny Corvette has a voice that sounds both familiar and distinctive, whilst his lyrics are self-aware and considered.

The album’s opener ‘Day Release’ is a relentlessly exciting up-tempo fiasco with a punchy-punky chorus that reminded me of early Libertines, in the best possible way. It acts as a perfect welcome party and is followed by the best song on the album ‘Masterpiece to tip’ (which you can watch an acoustic performance of below), a dreamy song with a fantastic vocal tune that leaps around flawlessly atop a bed of perfectly laid harmony.

In terms of quality the album is pretty far spread. At one end we have enjoyable gems like the two described above. The two other stand out tracks are ‘On my back again’, a song that opens with a belting rock riff before turning into something resembling a rock ‘n’ roll version of the Doctor Who theme (again, in the best possible way) and ‘Down’, an uncharacteristically melancholy song that closes the album on a satisfying somber note. Both songs have thoughtful lyrics that are certainly worth giving a proper listen.
At the other end, we have tracks like ‘Around Here’, a song that was so dull and repetitive I actually wanted to inflict pain on it, and ‘Fear of Falling’ which manages to start, go exactly nowhere for nearly three minutes and contain an infuriatingly pointless keyboard solo.

So far so good (sort of), but here comes my problem; despite liking the album and thoroughly enjoying it, I’m really struggling to find anything substantial to say about it or indeed explain clearly and concisely what I liked about it.

Calling the band average, normal, boring or ordinary seems extremely harsh and I certainly wouldn’t use any of these words to describe the album. Similarly I couldn’t realistically describe the album as being mind blowing. It  certainly doesn’t deserve to have a ladle of my steaming hot scorn poured all over it, whilst showering it in sycophancy seems a little unjustified. This leaves me in something of a predicament when you consider how I opened this paragraph.

I like the band enough to want to tell the world about them, hence this review. I just don’t think that they are astonishing. Musically they would be dull and lyrically uninteresting if they had any other front man, but they don’t, they have a man with the voice of someone you instantly connect with and who should probably already be famous. The music feels very open and honest which makes the band extremely likable, and similar to a friend that you can’t help but want to constantly hug.

After much debate and argument within my own brain, I’ve concluded that this album should occupy the same place in my music collection as literally everything ever released by The Eels; I simply refuse to not own it, despite possibly never wanting to listen to it again.

#2 is due to be released in the coming months. Please keep an eye out for it and in the mean time have a listen to Maybe Later or check out the band’s MySpace.

If you would like to be reviewed then please email me; luke@routenote.com or follow me on twitter @monkeyhotel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sPHtwk6fMI