REVIEW: Various Artists, Songs for the Jet Set 2000 (Jetset)
- Chris Hill
Perfectly engineered for mid-afternoon autumn drives in the country, the third volume in the "Songs for the Jet Set" series is filled with breezy, sun-drenched tunes. Their guiding aesthetic is '60s soundtracks: movies of experimentation (with or without the aid of pharmaceuticals), romantic expression, and personal exploration: movies which are quaintly dated by modern standards, yet still boldly visionary given today's restrictive, politically-correct, "just say no" environment. Dubbing this aesthetic "Cinema Pop", the artists involved have managed the supremely rare feat of three compilations which please from start to finish, while firmly adhering to their initial vision.
This installment begins with the playfully flirtatious "El Graphic" by Tomorrow's World - retro-chic keyboards, rhythm guitar, and harmonized "ba ba ba" syllables reintroducing the band and atmosphere to their initiates. Responsible for one of the high watermarks in the series ("Kites are Fun" on the first volume), Tomorrow's World deliver a powerful one-two punch here, following their blissful, love-struck "On A Saturday" with the Sandra Dee, crying-in-the-windowbox "I Realised You". Leading the first with male vox, and the second with female, the band clothe their romantic sentiment ("Visions of someone special/ appearing to be just daydreams of love/...All I ask's for someone who cares/who understands and just needs me") in unisex, one- size-fits-all garb.
Songs... continues the previous releases' seamless placement of the naive and the worldly side by side. "Day Out" by Daisies ("Oh, what a hand in glove day!/Oh, what an 'I'm in love!' day!") is sassy and innocent, yet fits perfectly against the hazy, Vaseline-smeared-lens psychedelia of Milky's "Willow's Song". For my money, the most cinematic of the twelve tracks, Milky's soft female vocals and Spanish guitar create a palpably dreamy setting. Bolstering this visual quality, the aptly-named Wallpaper ante in with three instrumentals ("At the Art Museum", "Sun", "Dreams That Money Can Buy") which serve as both stand- alone pieces and intermissions between vocal tracks.
Death by Chocolate offer two quirky tunes, delivering on the promise shown in volume two's gleefully kittenish "Zap the World". The first is a cover of the cheerful, druggy "My Friend Jack": "My friend Jack eats sugar lumps/Sugar man hasn't got a care/He's been travelling everywhere." Their second, "Bears", springs from a child's inventive imagination: "When you're walking between the lines and the squares/be careful that you don't step on the bears/...There's a bear in the gutter/so be careful not to utter/a sound that will disturb". Bowery bums or bears, there's no judgment implied. A girlish whisper of "Ssssh, there's a bear!" and a growl finish the song with its amusing reality intact.
Like this track, Songs for the Jet Set 2000 maintains its humor tongue-in-cheek, convincingly sincere in its love for the genre, while avoiding any hints of kitsch or mockery. This devotion ensures that the next volume will be as eagerly awaited. See http://jetset.sinner.com for further info on this series.
