jj - V

The teaser provided a good taste of what to expect from the album. The video for “All White Everything”, the album’s lead single, is set in a mental hospital and features the same white morph leering up at the camera while flat out on the floor. There are syringes. There are bandages. It’s all a little too much to take in.

So does the music on the album live up to the weirdness of the video of its lead single? Well, not quite, but that’s not to say it’s not an entertaining listen. “All White Everything” starts as an innocent love ballad before morphing into a post-tropical shuffle, just after the one and half minute mark. Cold piano chords accompany the repetitive chanting of “What do you know about that? No, you don’t know a thing”. It is uplifting as well as infectious.

A heavy hips hop influence runs through V. In the past, hip hop cross-over has proven successful for JJ. The band’s wonderfully melancholy cover of Lil’ Wayne and The Game’s “My Life” was talked about all over the blogs. Their cover of Dr Dre’s “Still D.R.E.”’ raised a few eyebrows, but was mainly lauded for its experimentation.

In V’s case, it’s mainly the lyrics that are inspired by hip hop - though some of the instrumentation is too. The 808 clatter of “Hold Me” incorporates a chopped and screwed hip hop sample at the beginning of it, before marching into an uncanny sermon, drenched in reverb. Although this sounds good on paper, it is actually quite hard work on the ears.

jj are at their most engaging on songs such as Fagelsangen (Swedish for “Birdsong”) and the auto-tuned “Inner Light”. The band go into safer territory on closer “All Ways, Always” which adopts a traditional rock rhythm guitar along with gentle major chords. Kastlander’s husky yet sweet vocals work well with the instrumentation. You have to admire the experimentation and musical audacity demonstrated on this album - it’s a shame that it doesn’t always work in jj’s favour.