REVIEW // Halloween Summer by Neil Jarvis

Happy Tuesday everyone! Are you just the bees knees about today? If not then let me try and turn that around with a new album review. 

Today we got Halloween Summer, a new album from Greater Manchester based band, Neil Jarvis, which is now a full-fledged band! Hooray for having all your bells and whistles and stuff! Halloween Summer is the follow up to the Jarvis' 2012 release, Weekends. 

Weekends was a good album but it wasn’t great. Now, don’t take that the wrong way, you should definitely still listen to Weekends (and read my review!), as it was both the debut release of Neil Jarvis and also just a good album. But as stated on the On the Grind Records page, Weekends was an experiment in sun-drenched pop and hypnagogic rock, a dreamy and hypnotic (hence the name) sub-genre of rock. As with most normal experiments there are good and bad results which is no different here.

Fast-forward to the present and now Jarvis is back with his sophomore release, Halloween Summer. This album really shows the band progressing in the right direction and learning from some of the mistakes of the previous record (or cassette tape in this case). But not all of these mistakes are corrected as there are still a couple tracks that I had a lot of trouble with. One of these tracks is definitely "Young As Me". Although it is definitely one of the more carefree sounding songs on this album it seems to not care a little too much as the vocalising and distortion of guitars seem to hinder to songs quality. This distortion was present in a couple tracks from Weekends too but luckily only really makes a reappearance in this track. 

On the flip-side Halloween Summer really shines on it's fast-paced rock tracks and its more instrumentally driven tracks. "Help", "Shred Met", "Good Years", "Shootin' the Breeze" along with many others help to make a very good album all in all. If you are at all a fan of Kurt Vile, Hibou, or even if you just like jam bands or surf rock, then you'll really love this album. Right now you can purchase Halloween Summer by Neil Jarvis on On the Grind Records for £3.00. Purchase comes with a cassette tape and digital download of the album. Below you can listen to a couple of songs off the album.

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LISTEN // Hear a teaser of Neil Jarvis' new album

Well, we may still have a ways to go before the warm rays and relaxing days of summer arrive, but with Neil Jarvis' new teaser for his forthcoming album, we can at least pretend it's here already. "Halloween Summer" is the newest track out from Manchester England based band, Neil Jarvis, and is the title track off their upcoming album by the same name, out this May via On the Grind. 

This will be the band's second album, who draw influences from bands such as Real Estate, Pavement, Silver Jews and others. I briefly talked with Jarvis about the album, and the band in general, and you can read his response below. Don't forget to look for Halloween Summer this May, and while you're at it listen/purchase the band's last album Weekends here!

Neil Jarvis on influences, Halloween Summer, and the band:
"My main inspiration is bands like Neil Young, Pavement, The Feelies, Real Estate, Sun Araw. We played a gig last year with Bob Nastanovich from Pavement who joined us on stage for a song - (we asked him if he would), and that was highlight, i'm a big fan of Pavement and Silver Jews, and they are big influences... 

...This album is much more the sound of a band playing together, unlike the first album 'Weekends' which was myself getting my friends in to play on songs. I got a permanent band together last year and it's definitely added something extra to it. There's more conventional pop songs on this album and less of the ambient experimental stuff, but it still has some [experimentation] in the sound."

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