Pluto Jonze (AKA Lachlan Nicolson) delivers a spanking debut album, with swagger and insolence to spare. If you can listen to this without wanting to dance, you have already died and are so boring no one could spot the difference. It is simply a great time, a potpourri of party; a bit of this, a bit of that, a lot of fun. Lo-fi and loose, Jonze plays every instrument, sings every line, as well as producing, mixing and engineering they whole deal, a hands on fellow.
Wearing his inspirations on the ends of his frayed, vintage sleeves, Pluto Jonze opens the album with Beck Odelay-era Hispedangongonajelanguiro, a drug-induced nonsense wig-out. It is a perfect tone setter for all that follows. Plastic Bag In A Hurricane is built round a killer riff, layered with stings and sounds huge, like that scene in a movie where they cut between three of four simultaneous actions set pieces. All Washed Up is the come down song, a regretful Monday morning after a weekend full of events you can’t place, complete with languid whistling.
The album’s stand out track is Eject – it is a perfect pop-song, full of hooks, sleazy boogie woogie 12 bar guitar, bar-room piano, hand claps, a chorus you can sing after one listen. It made me stand up and move the very first time I heard it and I continue to do so now. All the stars to this song.
Keeping with the eclectic feel, See What The Sun Sees is a 6/8 waltz with a counterpoint electric piano riff and is just lovely. Easily mixes the Chemical Brothers’ beats with a Beatles feel, and Meet You Under Neon is a big airy ballad, so much space and room in the arrangement. The closer, Come On Sunshine, has the tempo of a goodbye and rounds out what is not a coherent ‘story’ album, but track after individual track that all help build an object in its entirety. It’s even got a hidden track – I love a hidden track. Such low expectations for such a high reward bonus, if the track is no good you will never wait around the five minutes of silence to get to it, but if it is alright you will look forward to it like a school kid waiting for the 3.30pm bell. This one is an entertaining goof-off jam and worth the wait.
Pluto Jonze’s first album leaves with you with just one question: when’s the next one coming out?
BY JACK FRANKLIN
Best Track: Eject
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: BECK and THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS, back when Beck and The Chemical Brothers were fun, so late 90s
In A Word: Lo-fi
