No Nations

Album Review

Jets Overhead's second album, 2009's No Nations, is a pleasant, gently trippy throwback to the '90s shoegaze scene filled with waves of guitars, dreamily hazy vocals, and sweetly sung melodies. The band also adds layers of vintage keyboards, including the rarely used ARP Solina, to create a warm and comforting sound. Vocalists Adam Kittridge and Antonia Freybe-Smith blend together nicely, sounding at times like a brother and sister singing together at a family get-together. You may be getting the idea that No Nations is a nice record by this point, and you would be right. It is unfailingly nice. Not a note is out of place, no voices are raised, the tempos are firmly set at mid, and the general feel is that of a meandering stroll along a winding country lane. A slightly melancholy stroll, at times, as songs like "Weathervanes (In the Way") and "Time Will Remember" have a longing quality that gives the record some depth below the shiny surface. It wouldn't be a big surprise if the band owned a copy of Starflyer 59's classic neo-gaze album Leave Here a Stranger somewhere in their collection back home in Victoria, Canada. Probably some albums by the Radar Bros and Acetone, too. Like those bands, Jets Overhead take spacy shoegaze guitars and blend them with classic singer/songwriter song structure and end up with an inviting and peaceful sound that is easy to swallow. The effects may not be long lasting or particularly powerful in Jets Overhead's case, but it feels pretty good while it lasts.