Space Jaguar's 'Command Post' Is a Bright, Bittersweet Masterpiece of Jangle
Command Post is Space Jaguar’s leanest and loudest record, ten tracks with no label logo on them and no interest in hiding the hooks — “Unstuck in Static,” “Give Up (I Don’t Think I Can),” “The Szilard King,” “Never Coming Down” and “So Many Things” among them.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Andrew Taylor plays guitar and drums and also mixed and produced the album, which is the kind of concentration that usually goes badly and here goes extremely well. Raven Sings the Blues notes he “returns to the producer’s chair with a leaner vision” — a decision that, per the same review, “knocks this immediately to the top of the band’s deepening catalog.” Michael Wood plays bass, with Ryan Kalkman stepping in on “In the Bush Outside.”
The Spatial Dynamics: Will Killingsworth mastered at Dead Air, and anyone who has heard a Dead Air master knows what that means: the guitars keep their bite and the top end never turns to glass. Add To Wantlist’s Niek describes the result as “a ten-song dose of jangly, hook-filled guitar pop that aims to bottle the magic of the 1993 Reading Festival,” and hears “the songs hit with a little more clarity and immediacy.”
Standout Performance
Mark Grassick, who wrote all ten songs, sings them, plays guitar, and shot and designed the cover. Raven Sings the Blues gets at his specific talent: Grassick “has a knack for big hooks hung on strums and a heart-on-sleeve hummability.” Esme Tennant’s guest vocal on “The Szilard King” is the record’s loveliest left turn.
Why It’s Certified
Because it is unembarrassed. There is no irony budget here, no attempt to make a jangle-pop record about jangle-pop records — just ten songs that want to be sung back. Raven Sings the Blues hears it plainly: “everything on Command Post feels bigger, brighter.” Their closing advice is the right note to end on. “Don’t let this one slip away. It’s just the bittersweet gem to get you through” — which, in a year like this one, is a higher compliment than it sounds.