I went to a small private school all of my life (you're going to have to bear with me, reader, as there is a story behind this album.) Anyways, my musical tastes in high school were that of what most kids were listening to at the time, as it usually is. But I was into band stuff, you know, playing shows, playing in bands that mimicked whatever we were listening to. Everything changed when a friend at school introduced me to Napster. With Napster I began to discover a whole world of music I had no idea existed. And a lot of it was found by accident. I remember searching emo shit, and I stumbled upon Mineral's "If I Could." I had never heard anything like it, and it was so different from what the popular idea of "emo" was at the time. It was all new and exciting, but no one else then seemed to care. Well, my world was turned upside down a few weeks later, when, I'm not making this up, this is a true story, I was searching through MXPX albums at the Camelot Music store (you remember those?) in my local mall. I can remember like it was yesterday, I'm there, rifling through M, and there it is, for some reason, time and space align, and I'm staring at Sunny Day Real Estate's
Diary. I had only heard about it through Napster, as like a related artist or something. Never heard a second of it. But it's staring at me, that odd artwork, all the while my parents calling me because they were ready to go. I used all the money I had for the week to purchase it, and that, as they say, is that. My love of indie rock birthed from one single purchase. Everything was exactly the same, but it was different now, because I felt I had something that no one else around me had. Well, let's fast forward a bit, I'm a senior now (still in high school for this story you guys,) and through new friends and some new like-minded people, I discover the local record store (I'm sorry again, for this story you need to just assume that I didn't know shit about fuck, and everything's new to me.) After going up and down the isles just gawking at everything because it so cool and I need it all, I finally choose an album to take home. Yeah, one album, I'm in high school! I don't have any money. I'm 26, I still don't have any money. But I purchased The Jealous Sound's
Kill Them With Kindness. Never heard it before, just liked the album title. Can I sidenote here and just say did you ever have that feeling of buying a record you didn't know anything about? It's so good. I miss it. So I get this album, and I'm floored, maybe not at first, but I got there. I remember for my senior trip we went on a cruise to the Bahamas and Grand Cayman. I brought a handful of clothes, some spending money, and
Kill Them With Kindness, that's it. And I remember listening to it, on my big ass mobile cd player, all the time. That album kind of defined my senior year. Over the years, it became a regular in my music rotation. I saw them live a few years down the road with Piebald. I was that guy in the front who knew all the songs and was really into it. They just became "one of those bands" for me. The one that you are like I love them and fuck off if you don't. So, let's again fast forward down the road to 2012. It has been close to ten years since
Kill Them With Kindness . I am older now, my music tastes have changed, ever-evolving, and yet, when I heard that they were releasing a new album, I am feeling a wave of emotion(s). At first, I am super excited, and then my hyper-critical mind begins to worry. Could an album I didn't even think would ever come to fruition possibly meet any expectations I had? In a modern music world, where everything changes so quickly, where trends and genres pop up like the adds you wait for to finish before getting to the meat of whatever you're searching for on the internet, could The Jealous Sound succeed? Did you forget about them? Did you even ever
care? I was almost dreading their return, for fear of them failing, that they couldn't make "the cut" anymore. But let me tell you this,
A Gentle Reminder is every bit as good as
Kill Them With Kindness, and even outshines it in many ways. What it comes down to, is Blair Shehan does pop rock like no one else on the planet. Every song on
A Gentle Reminder is a heightened, highly polished version of my favorite songs off KTWK. Take the best single you can think of, and then imagine an album of ten of those. That's what they manage to pull off here. It's almost impossible to pick a favorite track on here because they are all so good. I've had all year to pour into it, and I'm never disappointed. The fact that there were no gimmicks, just the band doing what they do best made me love it even more. In October I got to see them again, live. I'm 26, now, in the front, drunk, having the greatest time singing along to the old and new songs, maybe even being a bit obnoxious, and I can remember I kept thinking to myself, how lucky I am to have loved this band for so long, and that somehow they managed to keep going, even if there were some rough patches along the way.
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