Jealous Lover What's Your Damage

Top 30 albums of 2021: #’s 30 – 26

As always, I actually wait until the previous year has ended to put out my list of my top albums (and live performances, which will be listed in other posts), because albums are released all the time. Many excellent albums have been released in many Decembers and gone forgotten or ignored by music critics and bloggers.

So, without further ado, let’s get started. I reviewed sixty-five albums last year, so I cut the list in half to cover the top of the bunch.

#30: Shred Flintstone – Unlimited Power

This is a wild punk rock record from a band with a goofy name and serious chops. I mean, you have to be good with a name like “Shred Flintstone.” Unlimited Power is appropriately titled, because the whole thing is bursting with energy.

#29 Open Hand – Weirdo

This is a fun dance-rock record that was several years in the making. It’s like a combination of LCD Soundsystem and !!!.

#28: Jealous – Lover / What’s Your Damage?

This is a wild double EP of post-punk and krautrock from Berlin. It ranges from dance beats to rock riffs and was one of the best releases fro Dedstrange all year.

#27: Cuffed Up – Asymmetry

This four-song EP is solid alternative rock with catchy hooks, great double vocals, and heavy riffs that bode well for a full-length album in the future.

#26: The Black Angels – Live at Levitation

The Reverb Appreciation Society has been issuing “Live at Levitation” albums for a little while now, so it was no surprise that The Black Angels, who started the RAS and also started and still help curate the annual Levitation Music Festivals in Austin, Texas and Angers, France, should get their own release in the series. It covers some of the bands’ earliest performances at the festival and is a treat for fans of the band, the festival, and psychedelic rock.

Who cracked the top 25? Come back tomorrow to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Jealous – Lover / What’s Your Damage?

What’s bold? Releasing your debut as not just an EP, but as a double EP. Berlin’s Jealous did exactly that with their Lover / What’s Your Damage? release for Oliver Ackermann‘s Dedstrange label. It’s a wild mix of shoegaze, synthwave, post-punk, art rock, and other things you can’t quite define.

Uri Rennert‘s heartbeat drums on “K-Hole II,” the opening track of the Lover EP, set up a dark tone for the entire record. Paz Bonfil‘s guitar is perfectly suitable for a spaghetti western villain’s theme music. Adi Kum‘s vocals spin around you like playful ghosts. Her bass on “Blackeye” is thick enough that it might give you one. “Debbie Downer” has, as you can imagine, a dark vibe, and the fast and furious “Fast Cars” isn’t a cover of the Buzzcocks rocker, but rather a fierce rocker of their own with Bonfil’s guitar sounding like he’s strangling it at some points. It builds to a wild pace, with Rennert almost dismantling his kit as he plays.

Kum’s somewhat grumpy bass starts off “Gravity,” the first song on the What’s Your Damage? EP. It builds to a heavy-hitting, pulsing track that grabs your attention and doesn’t let go for about four minutes. “Cowboy ‘Kelly’ Katastroph” is a straight-up post-punk bliss, as is “Sharp Bones / Broken Claws” – with Bonfil’s guitar riffs as sharp as its title. “Slaughterhouse 3000” ups the fuzz a bit and the playfully bratty vocals even more. The EP ends with “Thunder,” which highlights the dual vocals from Bonfil and Kum.

It’s good stuff, and many thanks for Dedstrange for bringing it to us.

Keep your mind open.

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Jealous announced debut double-EP due August 13th

Jealous are a powerhouse trio making adventurous, unhinged art-punk and Dedstrange is here to cram it down your throat.

“Lover/What’s Your Damage?” is the first Dedstrange release and the debut double EP from these freaks from Berlin. It’s a co-release with Jealous’ label Baby Satan Records, who will be issuing it on cassette. It’s got nine rippin’ tracks that twist glam, garage, cowpunk, and riot-grrl influences into a potent strain of DIY post-punk fury with enough energy to tear down the wall one more time. They’ve played across the pond with the likes of Viagra Boys, The Black Lips, Amyl And The Sniffers, and Surfbort—and they’re coming for you, world!

You might think you’re ready for “Lover/What’s Your Damage?” to hit the streets on August 13, 2021, but you’re not. These here songs are about what goes on inside a serial killer’s brain, the flaws inherent to human nature, and the softer side of drug comedowns.

Lead single “K-Hole II” is a soundtrack for the highs and lows of navigating an existential post-break-up trip. On “Blackeye,” pounding minimalist drums keep rhythm while a guitar part like a Vulcan mind meld between Mary Timony and Poison Ivy snakes its way across the mix until all hell breaks loose. “Fastcars” is a high-octane, in-the-red, just absolute bruiser of a cut, so try to keep up, alright?

Limited to 300 copies, “Lover/What’s Your Damage?” is the first official physical release from Jealous, and with all the buzz is sure to sell out quickly. Indie Berlin calls Jealous “rising stars within the alternative microcosm” with “a rather intriguing spectacle,” “mad pack energy,” and “an explosive sound.”

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Steven at Dedstrange.]