Jonquil - Whistle Blow

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4...according to our Phil on Thu 26 Feb, 2009.

Jonquil are back with a new 7 track EP mini album, Whistle Blow, on Acuarela. I was reasonably disappointed with the last album after the infinite joy of the debut. Mind you I've had to time to get used to it and their slight change of direction. This is their first release that ain't an album as well. Two albums in and not a single...I kind of like that unusual approach to chucking your music out there. On my first listen it sounds not a million miles way from the material on Lions. But like I say now I've got used to them sounding more poppy it makes more sense now. There's deffo hints of XTC, Animal Collective and Akron/Family chucked into this weird folk pop tinged hybrid and it totally works. Am keen I have to say. Those who dug Lions will want to check this mother out.

Hailing from the musical city of Oxford, Jonquil have had a very prolific two years of existence that has resulted in two full length albums, both on Try Harder Records (Foals, Blood Red Shoes), and two self-released tour CDRs. Numbering six members and a far greater number of instruments (the usual guitar bass and drums plus accordion, flute, violin, trumpet, melodica, piano, organ…) Jonquil have moved on significantly from the noise-tinged avant-folk of their debut, Sunny Casinos. This new Mini-CD, the first non-album release of the band, sees Jonquil reinventing themselves as re-inventors of pop music, with moments of sublime melodicism set against dense polyrhythms that call to mind Animal Collective, Built to Spill, early Arcade Fire or Akron/Family, and some camp-side gathering, incorporating doo-wop, party horn arrangements and gentle balladry. “Whistle Low” was recorded initially by front-man Hugo Manuel in his bedroom and finished with the rest of the band over a two week period at the end of 2007, hot on the heels of their much lauded second album, Lions, which received glowing reviews in publications such as the Wire and Rock Sound as well as many of the world’s most influential blogs such as ‘My Old Kentucky Home’, ‘La Blogotheque’ and ‘Nothing But Green Lights’.

Tracks : 1. Whistle Low 2. Putting Names to Faces 3. Night Time Story 4. Parasol 5. So Far So Good 6. The Weight of Lying on Your Back 7. Water Is Yours

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