Singles

Mystery Jets - Young Love

Thomas 18/03/2008

Rating: 3.5/5

Two and a half years ago, Eel Pie Island's finest - and one suspects only - bi-generational punk-prog-popsters got us all excited with quirky, tuneful singles 'Alas Agnes' and 'You Can't Fool Me Dennis', but then fell down with an underwhelming album that lacked focus and, if truth be told, any more great songs formed within its grab-bag of ideas.

Now they return determined to show us how much we've missed them with 'Young Love', a perky and inventive track that continues in the vein of sounding like absolutely no-one but themselves. For that alone we salute them, without even having to go on about the odd mix of 60's doo-wop, upbeat 80's pop and timeless harmonies that they manage to mesh together into a cohesive whole.

Luckily they have some help this time round, with guest vocals from new talent Laura Marling (was going to say 'hot tip', but having just seen her on the Culture Show, it seems that horse has bolted) and a cutesy, colourful video that you can view via the link at the bottom of the page.

So now that they've once again whetted out appetites, and with Erol Alkan-helmed new album 'Twenty One' about to hit the shelves, can the Mystery Jets this time live up to the high expectations? The signs are, as always, pleasantly skewed at an impossible angle, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Release date: 10/03/08

Young Love Video.