Mystery Jets’ Live Return – An Emotional Preview Of Entire New Album ‘Curve Of The Earth’

ICA, London
November 10, 2015

“This feels weird,” admits Blaine Harrison midway through Mystery Jets’ set. Tonight, the returning band – who, astonishingly, have been together for over 20 years, having formed in the early ’90s when children – are previewing their fifth album ‘Curve Of The Earth’ in its entirety for the first time.

Gathered in London’s ICA, 350 fans, who’ve all won tickets via ticketing app Dice, aren’t your average quiet Tuesday night crowd. Even though the songs are unfamiliar – only ‘Blood Red Balloon’ has been played live before tonight – they whoop and holler and shout “I love you” at any given opportunity. When Harrison announces, “William’s going to sing you a song,” before ‘Midnight Memories’, someone at the back yells “Go on Will!”

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The Jets’ new material deserves that level of passion and enthusiasm. As an album, it feels like a natural successor to 2012’s ‘Radlands’ – all elongated swoons, swelling guitars and Harrison’s distinctive, emotive vocals. If ‘Radlands’ was their American record, ‘Curve Of The Earth’ has them hovering like satellites above the planet.

‘Telomere’ opens proceedings with a needling guitar line puncturing through sombre piano. It’s an introspective, stoic song about aging and death, full of dramatic lulls and lyrics about blood and cells. ‘Bombay Blue’ begins with just Harrison singing and strumming an acoustic guitar, but a couple of lines in he stops. “Let me start that again, I’ve fucked up the lyrics,” he says, shaking his head. Back on track, the song grows from gentle beginnings to an elegantly soaring stunner, crisp guitars zipping beneath Kapil Trivedi’s splashing cymbals.

Guitarist William Rees takes charge of two songs tonight – first ‘Midnight’s Mirror’, a slow but groove-laden cut that boasts a dipping bassline from newest member Jack Flanagan, a sci-fi synth hook and spectral three-part harmonies. Rees is also at the helm of closer ‘The End Up’, one of the night’s most emotional tracks. A rumination on love and soulmates, it has the guitarist pondering “How’d we end up with who end up with?/Is it just a question of luck?” over barely-there instrumentation. Best of all, though, is when he looks to his friendship group for answers: “Now my friends procreate, the ones who stayed up late never knowing who they’d meet/As I listen to them talk and watch their babies learn to walk, it’s my who’s finding my feet”. It’s a thoughtful, poignant finish, and one that proves Mystery Jets haven’t lost their knack for writing songs to capture your heart.

Mystery Jets played:

‘Telomere’
‘Bombay Blue’
‘Bubblegum’
‘Midnight’s Mirror’
‘1985’
‘Blood Red Balloon’
‘Taken By The Tide’
‘Saturnine’
‘The End Up’

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