Musical duo/collective Jungle have just released their second album, For Ever, and, after taking the win in our weekly poll, it’s our Album of the Week. Here’s Mariella’s review.
Jungle are not a band that can be easily defined. Fronted by childhood friends Tom McFarland and Josh Lloyd-Watson — known respectively as T and J — the two bring on five other members when they perform live, transforming their sound into an entirely different experience, and giving the band a unique “collective energy”. For T and J, starting Jungle seemed to be less of a conscious decision and more of a natural result of their friendship. “Over the last ten years [since we met] we’ve built up folders and files of music”, they said before their self-titled debut album was released, “We get a lot of fun and enjoyment from just hanging out. That’s what Jungle is”. Instead of deliberately building a band and marketing themselves in the hope of success, they simply gave a name to what they were already doing, and put their music out into the world with no expectations.
The pair had a long collaborative journey leading up to their first release, so it is no wonder we have had to wait some time for their second album, For Ever, to see the light of day. At the end of 2016, the band stopped touring to focus on their new record: a deeper and more personal one than before, one informed by the experiences they have had in the space between releases. For Jungle, fortunately (or unfortunately), the last two years have seen love, heartbreak, and many new places explored. They have had plenty of material to work with.
One of these new places is LA, a place T and J fell in love with whilst recording and writing the album, and the place of inspiration for the first two singles: ‘Happy Man’ and ‘House In LA’. The former is a cynical groove-pop reflection on the American Dream, upbeat, especially compared to some of their earlier work, with a clear message: “Buy yourself a car and a house to live in…buy yourself a dream and it won’t mean nothing”. The latter, meanwhile, is a much darker affair, with the dramatic piano and drums creating a broad soundscape that immerses a listener in an image of the Hollywood Hills. These two tracks, released together, are heavily contrasting. ‘Happy Man’ distracts listeners from its true message with its danceable beat, while ‘House In LA’ describes an idealistic version of the city over a melancholic beat. The two are juxtaposing in their representations of LA.
LA was not only a place that the band grew to love, but also a place they romanticised, a goal. “As a British musician it’s kind of like the pinnacle,” T says, “California has always held a romantic place in our imagination”. The second track, ‘Heavy, California’, is an ode to the place, a funky dream-pop tune with catchy guitar riffs and vocal ad-libs. These first three songs could easily have fit into Jungle’s debut album without turning heads, but not all of the tracks on this new album sound the same way. The opener, ‘Smile’, for example, is entirely different, with the swing rhythm of the rolling drums sounding reminiscent of Glass Animals’ ‘Life Itself’; while the sensuous ‘Cherry’ draws inspiration from James Blake, with softer vocals and a more down-tempo style.
Love is a prominent theme on this record, but, as well as celebrating a love for California, the mourning of lost romantic love also plays a role in some of the tracks. The repetitious and neurotic piano sequence on ‘Cosurmyne’ reflects the fear of losing a loved one, and the album’s closing song, ‘Pray’, features sweeping strings which give it a dreamy glamour as it fades and laments “life without you”. A religious motif is also established by ‘Pray’, one that is picked up again in ‘Mama Oh No’, which begins slowly, before high pitched guitar and quickening drums instil a sense of urgency in the song.
Jungle might be difficult to define — perhaps they are more of a collective than a band — but they are sonically diverse, too. For Ever blends a range of genres, including J Dilla-style chill hop on ‘Beat 64 (All Good Now)’, as well as straight funk on ‘Casio’ and the organ driven ballad ‘Home’. And, for the most part, this blending is successful. However, it does go slightly awry on ‘Give Over’, where the erratic synths don’t quite complement the duo’s falsetto harmonies. ‘(More and More) It Ain’t Easy’ is so simple it almost feels unfinished, and it is hard to imagine how even Jungle could transform this into a seven-piece live performance. Although the persistent falsetto style can be a bit tiresome, the variation in genres does keep things interesting, and the personal nature of the songs on this album render them even more compelling. Letting the band and the music come together naturally has worked well for Jungle so far, but now they are opening up more as well, which works even better. “Jungle [do] not believe in boundaries”, and it certainly shows.
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