Jennifer Gentle
Funny Creatures Lane

THE REVIEW

The fact that this album is released quite ahead of time (2002) compared to the now thriving Italian indie scene says a lot: certainly, Jennifer Gentle had the undeniable merit of being an exception compared to what was (and still is) commonly known as "alternative" in Italy. Fasolo playing and singing like Barrett in this album should not be taken as simple revival: firstly, because in its own way, it anticipated by a few years the rediscovery of "naif" that has spread to a good part of today's American independent proposals; secondly, because beyond appearances, this is not a revival album: it is more of a tribute that has the courage (and perhaps the audacity) to be so explicit as not to sound aesthetically dishonest.
Furthermore, Jennifer Gentle are not unaware of the lesson from some psychedelic bands of the '90s, primarily Dogbowl, from whom they derive the tendency to blend songs with myriad sound references, often orchestral, drowning their wavering chants. This is why the melodies sound enchanting, at times even brilliant: they are no longer the center of gravity of the piece, but a sort of hold on the prevailing chaos, an elusive anchor to resist being overwhelmed by perceptively unattainable sounds. It is an update of psychedelia in perfect 2000s style, and it is much closer to the turbulent pseudo-Zappian frescoes of Ariel Pink than directly to "The Piper..". Perhaps Jennifer Gentle's intuition is not that difficult, and their creative effort is not particularly advanced, yet they really manage to live on their own light, darker, perhaps more unsettling, in a tribute to chaos that is, in fact, their true soul.