Most bands don't release 15-track records anymore, but most bands don't really look like San Fermin, either. On the surface, yes, they're another sprawling art-pop act out of Brooklyn. But that pat veneer belies San Fermin's penchant for complex arrangements and artful ambition. It's no easy feat to craft challenging music that's also playful, pretty and pleasing.
Jackrabbit, which you can listen to one week before its release in the player above and pre-order here, is a well-crafted, intricately layered world that's weird and enchanted, polished but never placid. Amidst those 15 tracks are shorter, instrumental-only interludes, as if Jackrabbit were an indie rock musical, not an album. There's no second child syndrome here, either: this is a bigger, bolder and, yes, even better album than San Fermin's debut.
Ellis Ludwig-Leone has the perfect name for a bandleader, but that's a somewhat rare title in the world of modern indie pop. Ludwig-Leone is a songwriter, composer and arranger, the beating heart of San Fermin's sound, but all of the touring musicians who bring Ludwig-Leone's songs to life on Jackrabbit, and on the road, deserve equal acclaim.
Charlene Kaye and Allen Tate trade off on lead vocals and each bring something markedly different to the tracks. Tate's baritone lends an air of menace to every track ("The Woods," "Emily"), while Kay's clear, fresh tones ("Jackrabbit" and "Two Scenes") are vibrant jolts of life. When they team up, as they do on the chaotic "Parasites" and the final track, "Billy Bibbit," it's never a simple call-and-answer but a layering of two perspectives that exist side-by-side, independent of each other. Throughout, the instrumentation from John Brandon (trumpet), Stephen Chen (sax), Rebekah Durham (violin and vocals), Michael Hanf (drums) and Tyler McDiarmid (guitar) is innovative and moving.
At times edgy and fraught, hopeful and yearning, Jackrabbit is a fantastical, escapist universe of Ludwig-Leone's making and a glorious second effort from San Fermin.
Tracklist
1. The Woods
2. Ladies Mary
3. Emily
4. Jackrabbit
5. Astronaut
6. Philosopher
7. Ecstatic Thoughts
8. Woman In Red
9. The Cave
10. Parasites
11. Reckoning
12. The Glory
13. Two Scenes
14. Halcyon Days
15. Billy Bibbit
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