Jonquil at The Old Blue Last

Jonquil at The Old Blue Last

11 May, 2011
by: Uckfield99

New boys come good while Jonquil prove they were forgotten souls...

Undeterred by the muggy air that seems to be sitting about head height in the Old Blue Last tonight, Liam, of Various Cruelties, continues to sport his leather jacket in the sticky swelter. A checkmate move in the game of East London cool? Well the cynics among the typically Shoreditch crowd may argue so, but who’d have thought the rusty pop of Various Cruelties’ blue-eyed shabby soul would ever be desirable in these parts.

Playing before headliners, Jonquil, Various Cruelties are still wobbling through their tentative first steps as a new band, but that could be a good thing. Getting ahead of themselves at this stage could be dangerous as all it takes is the powers that be to see cartoon pound signs flash in their retinas and do a Brother with them. I’m only saying this because their on-stage innocence is as adorable as the shabby-chic pop-pouts that flutter from Liam’s sublime vocals.

From the opening tease of ‘Cold As You’ to the closing serenity of ‘Chemicals’ something stimulating has cultivated itself between the scales of polished pop and the hounding influences of the Chess Club and Motown records. With gigs like this, Various Cruelties might just challenge the likes of Mumford and The Vaccines for that unexpected slot at the top of the chats. You better believe it.

But the future, as they say, is for another day. Right now we have to deal with Jonquil, whose edgy indie-electro snaps have begun to creep onto the stage. Strangely there seems to be an odd air of 2008 knocking about.

Jonquil have managed to release two albums and two EPs since their birth back in 2006 to various degrees of success, which is unfortunate for these dreamy post-indie chaps. Seeing as they were making this sort of mellifluous glitz almost four years before anyone else cottoned on, it seems that they’ve almost been cheated out of a place on the podium of band worship. It must hurt even more when they see descendents of their scene are now drinking champagne out of Louboutin loafers and getting an eyeful of Lindsay Lohan’s lobster as she exits Limousines.

When Jonquil are at their most muted, it’s like floating through linear pools of elongated lo-fi hums, to land close by the likes of Beach House’s disjointed calm. Which is all very well, but once you’ve heard them gnaw at the heels of Vampire Weekend, Phoenix and even Two Door Cinema Club, you yearn for their candied calypso-pop like a diabetic missing sugar. “Maybe carelessness for now is best” they chirp in ‘I Know I Don’t Know’; and they say that irony is cruel.

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Uckfield99