Be warned: this is not the logical follow-up to The Woolen Spires. Anyone expecting the by-now-patented Jetenderpaul formula of less than one-minute songs, bizarre song titles, ambitious liner notes, cheap 4-track recordings, and muddily layered sounds should check their baggage at the door. This record is clean, premeditated, developed, distinct, and polished (to a certain degree). And the result is easily one of the better indie-pop records so far this year.
Because of the differences from more traditional Jetenderpaul records, The Modal Lines was first conceived as a sort of side project for the band, with the name The Modal Lines being pre-eminent, and Jetenderpaul in the background, if present at all. The album was to contain more traditional, two minute pop songs, recorded in a more clean format and bundled with a multimedia video portion on the disc (the multimedia portion is still intended, but problems with the distributor have left the initial copies of The Modal Lines video-less). Gone are obscure song titles such as "I'll Always Be the One in Need of a Palinode" and "Our Epic Banality," replaced with the relative normality of "The Design," "Twenty-One," and "All I Wanted to Remember." The 17 second bursts of sound on such tracks as "It's All Chicanery" are replaced on The Modal Lines by fully developed pop songs like "Before You Become Princess Belltower." The Elephant 6 style, 4-track-in-a-bedroom recording ethic present in all of Jetenderpaul's previous releases seems obsolete when faced with the (by comparison) slick production on The Modal Lines.
But enough of what this record isn't. The Modal Lines offers the best pop songs of Jetenderpaul's career. The songs rely heavily on melody, as always, and Randall Stephens and Jared Miller deliver vocal lines with the sort of intelligence that demonstrates clearly that the boys have done their pop music homework. It's a clever mix of the classic — such as the Beach Boys — with the current — Apples (in stereo). A rewarding listen all the way around, and easily more than good enough to cut through the sudden glut of indie/retro-pop bands and records, and distinguish Jetenderpaul as one of the best pop groups going.
Other coverage for this album
HM Magazine #89Reviewed by Kindred WinecoffBe warned: this is not the logical follow-up to The Woolen Spires. Anyone expecting the by-now-patented Jetenderpaul formula of less than one-minute songs, bizarre song titles, ambitious liner notes, cheap 4-track recordings, and muddily layered sounds should check their baggage at the door. This record is clean, premeditated, developed, distinct, and polished (to a certain degree). And the…Opus 2001Reviewed by Jason MoreheadFor some reason, I've always thought of Jetenderpaul as indiedom's resident clown princes. On one level, their music is cheeky and precocious, full of a pop whimsy that seems part Sid and Marty Krofft, part Wendy Carlos, and part Sgt. Pepper. It's almost as if these guys have nothing better to do than record pop music that's as skewed as possible, and yet still catchy and listenable. As such,…Similar sounding releases
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