"You can't fool me, Dennis"? "Alas, Agnes"? What is it with THE MYSTERY JETS and their apparent obsession with relatively unhip christian names? I really think we ought to be told.
But while we're at it, W&H will also readily order a pint of whatever it is Eel Pie Island's finest are on, because "Alas, Agnes" is - predictably enough - a further measure of wigged-out genius of the highest calibre. OK, I admit that by the Mystery Jets' out-there standards it's actually quite linear stuff this time round (well, providing you expect your Top 40 to be crammed full of mental rockabilly-prog-punk with bizarre time signatures and four-way harmonies, like) but even at cruise control level, the Mystery Jets prove there are few people out there capable of seizing control of their current airspace.
As always, the B-sides are particularly tasty odd fish too. "Electric Fires" is a forlorn acoustic ballad with a slightly vacant, ominous feel and Blaine singing plaintive, childlike stuff such as "some blue birds tweet tweet/ behind the sun the clouds hide". It's a slice of wonderfully eccentric Lewis Carroll-style whimsy that lands midway between the Jets' big hero Syd Barratt and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Closing tune "The Last Bench", meanwhile, comes to life in a shimmery psychedelic haze before a great !!!-style snaking bassline nips in, followed by loads of shakers and a nice forlorn Blaine vocal. Samples, voiceovers and that great chorus of "two steps forward and four steps back" features strongly. It's funky, playful and provocative and much more besides.
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So, by my reckoning that's three fantastic singles in a row. How about "Quelle Horreur, Horace" for the title of the next one?
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