Opening with the offbeat and Jamaican-flecked vocals of ‘Swings and Daffodils’, Edinburgh’s JAKIL clearly want to start off by showing the listener their range. The EP then veers into open-air wide-eyed summer pop and stays there. Endearing melodies mix Take That-style vocals with laid back drive-time guitars. Though mid-paced and inoffensive, the band always err on the right side of tasteful.
Incessantly catchy ‘Keep Me Sunny’ is a big song and shows that JAKIL can offer a similar sort of promise to the late FRANCESQA, ‘Break The Border’ has a great foreboding build-up with delayed guitars and closer ‘Landlocked’ offers excellent funk guitar riffage.
JAKIL‘s glossy harmonies are very satisfying on record, though at the end of the last track, when the melodyne is turned off and we have a live attempt at a cappella, everything falls a bit flat. Regardless, these songs feel fit for thousands to merrily bop along to in a very big field next summer. Though not particularly standout, ‘Swings’ is a solid, accomplished exercise in listenable guitar pop.
SAM FALLE