Jockstrap
I Love You Jennifer B

I could say that just as woman is said to have been created from a man’s rib, Jockstrap emerged from a rib of the Black Country, New Road, but since the first statement is false and the second true yet extremely simplistic, I won't say it. Anyway, yes, one of the two members of Jockstrap is Georgia Ellery, violinist and singer for the aforementioned Black Country, New Road, and that alone would be enough. She could have comfortably basked in the success of that masterpiece Ants From Up There, but instead, no, for the past three years, she has been working on this project with Taylor Skye, and finally, on September 9, 2022, they released this I Love You Jennifer B, an album impossible to define within a single genre. I could say it’s a very sophisticated pop, with glitch inserts, electronic, folk, jazz elements, and at times it even seems to have emerged from some musical theater work. The album is full of stuff, of influences, and I fear that this might scare someone away, but I'd be very sorry because it’s an album that deserves to be listened to despite the prejudices about the various genres that each of us might have. Each song is a unique piece, and its structure represents in miniature the structure of the entire album, which is homogeneous in its heterogeneity, or vice versa, as you prefer. What's the image that usually comes up?! Like “it’s an album to listen to in the car while traveling,” well no, this is like traveling by car through Las Vegas, where all the neon lights (like the title of the opening track) catch your attention and there isn't a glimpse of darkness, exactly like between the melodies and rhythms of the various sounds and electronic synths that come in and out, slow down and speed up, or go in reverse. In all this, it should be highlighted how each track sounds orchestral, as if they had put computers and synths in the hands of musicians from the '50s. I don't know, that's how I imagine them.

In summary, it is a work rich in well-developed ideas and complex, striving by all means to remain outside of spatial and temporal definition, where the musicians showcase, at the brink of ostentation (but they can afford it), all their versatility and musical culture. So what to say, if for them it’s I Love You Jennifer B, I permit myself to say I love you Jockstrap. Too cheesy? Oh well!