Orange County, California power-pop legends sparkle*jets u.k. returned this summer with their first record in over 20 years, and it\u2019s a massive 21 song effort consisting of rare covers of bands they\u2019ve befriended and been inspired from during their time in the underground rock scene. Best Of Friends<\/i> has the trio in fine form and surrounded by some guests, too. <\/p>\n
\u201cHold On Tight\u201d starts the listen with fluid strumming and Michael Simmons\u2019 bright and melodic singing, as Anthony Grisham provides his fluid electric guitar. The explosive \u201cHe\u2019s Coming Out\u201d follows with Susan West\u2019s powerful pipes guiding Jamie Knight\u2019s throbbing bass and Simmons\u2019 thumping drums.<\/p>\n
Further on, \u201cAre We There Yet?\u201d has Knight handling 12-string acoustic guitar amid the twinkling piano, Blake Martin\u2019s well-timed horns and very pretty singing from West, while \u201cI Want A Pony\u201d places Joel Valder on drums for the firm display of their \u201990s rock sensibilities that are still very much rooted in power-pop. <\/p>\n
Approaching the end, \u201cGood Sounds\u201d brings a jangly moment of nostalgic pop ideas that are dripping in melody, and \u201cFantastic Pantsuit\u201d exits with gritty guitar, a lively rhythm section, playful keys and Tisha Boonyawatana\u2019s very animated voice populating the busy versus calm textures.<\/p>\n
Available on CD or two slabs of vinyl, this is a triumphant return for a band who released a pair of great albums in 1998 and 2001 before going dormant. The covers include fun versions of tunes by The Masticators, Wondermints, Cockeyed Ghost and The Sugarplastic, plus others, and is brimming with hook-filled guitar rock that\u2019s as timeless as it is memorable.<\/p>\n
The band has always been and still is Susan West, Jamie Knight and Michael Simmons, and let\u2019s hope an album of originals is on the horizon next!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":34873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10887],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46740","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sparklejets-u-k","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46740"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}