Jet Lag Gemini – Fire The Cannons

First impressions are important. The fact of the matter is that first impressions are normally what people will remember about something, a band, a person, whatever. My first impression for The Jet Lag Geminiwas a bad one and because of that I wrote them off. It really wasn’t anything to do with them per say. But it was eight thirty on a Saturday morning, I was going into work and I was tired. At work I listen to CDs all day and having just getting a copy of Jet Lag Gemini‘s debut EP, Business, that was the first CD of the day that fine Saturday morning. The record failed to grab me and I think I almost fell asleep; which was not what I wanted my first CD of the day to do. I tried to listen to it a few more times over the next week but could never get into it, they were ruined in my mind and permanently stuck as that band that failed to keep me awake that morning. I wrote them off and never looked back.

Then I heard Run This City!, the first single and leading track from the band’s follow-up album, Fire The Cannons. It was surprisingly good, not what I had pictured in my mind beforehand and I actually wanted to hear the full length to see if the band could finally destroy that initial impression I had of them. And they did.

The album, while still not the most energetic or life changing release around, was good. It was supremely polished pop-punk with a tinge of the Jimmy Eat World spacious emo sound added to it. There’s a lush sensation to the record with the tight guitar riffs and soaring vocals working together to create a catchy pop-punk melody. Each song was built on the sane structure of verse-chorus-verse but it works as the choruses are instantly catchy. The lyrics are rarely anything to write home about (Because I run this city, run this city right and gritty) but are always good enough to get you singing along without feeling stupid. The songs work together nicely, taking cues from many of the pop-punk idols of this new century.

Doctor Please has a SR-71 sensation in the vocal delivery, The Bad Apples has a slight Matches feel with it’s staggered beat and Bittersweet can take a choice of influences from The Starting Line toCartel. Yes, they have the signature ballad thrown in the middle but even that can be overlooked particularly since it consistently becomes one of the standout tracks on the album throughout every listen but also because it’s followed by the heaviest track on the record, Fit To Be Tired, which sees the band really flourish with a heavier rock vibe to it like that of a Wind-Up Records act.

The main problem in the record however is that while the songs are always filled to the brim with enough hooks to bait a fish, they also tend to merge together a bit as a whole. That doesn’t take away from the listening pleasure of the record but diminishes the re-playability and memorable qualities that it needs to really make an imprint in the listener’s mind. Not only that but the band seems to be in dire need of it’s own identity instead of borrowing from so many of the genre’s staples. Still, it leaves me with a bunch better impression than they originally had.