Not half as unclassifiable as previous, mind-bending single "On My Feet", the curiously-titled "You Can't Fool Me, Dennis" is surprisingly poppy, immediate and linear from the word go, and within seconds you find yourself grasping for superlatives like 'catchy' and 'bouncy'.
This being Eel Pie Island weirdos THE MYSTERY JETS, of course, you're also soon wondering where the catch will become apparent as the band slide into the first of several 2/16-beat middle eights, just to wrongfoot us for the hell of it. But in all honesty, that doesn't really happen. Yes, they do threaten us with it at about 1 min 45 in, but even here they rein this in, instead bringing the groove around with the great line "It always pays to be brave from the cradle to the grave". And yes, there is a moral in there, I think.
Whatever, "You Can't Fool Me Dennis" is excellent, insistent guitar pop beamed in from a friendly planet we should make a point of visiting more often. Self-explanatory B-side "Quite A Delight" is great fun, too. It's a lot more roughshod than its' celebrated A-side partner, but comes on like the most joyful of runty indie-Motown with shedloads of tambourine and what appears to be a Moog going down with a weird strain of tropical flu. It's also ridiculously short, clocking in at under 2 minutes. But hey: it's always best to leave 'em wanting more, right?
|
Mystery Jets, then, have clearly chloroformed the air traffic controllers and set the controls for a journey into pop's unknown without the aid of lights and a functioning radio. Yet regardless of the dangers, theirs is still a flight I'd urge you to catch. At this rate, they'll be buzzing the stratosphere before long.
|
