Mystery Jets have been a staple of the British indie scene for a decade and more now. It’s nigh on impossible to go through a British summer and not see their name on the bill of seemingly every festival – from the corporate behemoths to those that are little more than a party in a mate's garden. Their secret to longevity, now that we have long since passed the moment of ‘peak-indie’ in the mid noughties, lies in the band’s ability to try different styles of guitar-based music whilst not straying so far from the path that they lose everything that makes them distinctive.
Now on their fifth full-length, Curve of the Earth, Mystery Jets take a look back at their discography and try to collate its myriad of different styles into one album. There is a definite sense that the band have reached some sort of point of contemplation – ten years of releasing records has meant they have changed in any number of ways, musical and non-musical, and perhaps the only way to ensure they enjoy another decade is to take stock of what they have done so far and learn from it.
This means that we revisit the sparkling pop sheen of third album Serotonin on ‘Bubblegum’, the angular guitar jerks of Twenty One on the opening of ‘Telomere’, and the Americana-meets-stadium-rock ballads of Radlands on the likes of ‘Taken by the Tide’. Each track is a trip down memory lane for Mystery Jets, but what is interesting is that it feels more necessary than fun. The anthemic choruses and impassioned vocal strains don’t have the same breezy, light-hearted nature that we’re used to with Mystery Jets. Instead, they are the very concerted effort of Harrison and co. to understand where they have been, where they are and where they are headed.
This self-awareness is perhaps best manifested in Curve of the Earth’s final statement. Album closer, ‘The End Up’, sees Blaine Harrison pondering the changing nature of romantic relationships, but it’s easy to see that he's probably thinking about his work-life too. “Won’t it be strange, to see how we change, when we’re all grown up”. Mystery Jets are old hands at this now – and while this offering doesn’t have the immediacy that classics such as ‘Two Doors Down’ and ‘Serotonin’ bring, it is a necessary record from a band that needs to work out where it goes from here.
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