Weekend – Jinx

-->

After several months of listening booth circulation, and internet-buzz, I decided to objectively listen to Weekend’s Jinx.  It took me a few listens to understand the appeal, which I admit doesn’t make a great case for the album, but the thing is, its super textural and adequately layered.  And after popping it into our trusty CD player and listening to it over the speakers at Lakeshore, I really do enjoy it.

            I had a hard time placing Jinx amongst new bands sonically, and when I asked Andrew (the owner of Lakeshore) what he thought, he said Jinx sounds like “pornography” era Cure/early indie-guitar-rock.  This was a pretty spot on description for the album.  Although…I can hear a lot of background-feedback-layers and a much more dense sound than most of the Cure’s work.  The guitars are drenched in reverb and delay, with a little clean jangle on the top.  There are layers of buzz saw-y synths, and a tinge of “Doolittle” era Pixies. 

I love the production approach to the album.   It is hard to pin down the influences, since it sounds both new and old at the same time.   There is a hint of Simple Minds to the vocals (and yes this is the most referential blog I have done to date), but the album gets really noisy (and remains melodic) around halfway through the record. 

It is a nice throwback sounding record, and I really enjoy the idea of being both new, but still paying homage to their influences.  I know I’m going to listen to it a few times throughout the week, to make sure that I can understand it a little better.   

They have gotten pretty noteworthy placements including mention in Sports Illustrated, in addition, their song “End Times” was used in the promotion of the sixth season of Dexter.

Buy Weekend - Jinx

Listen to "Mirrors" by Weekend