Something I Missed: I Never Thought I'd Like An Album By A Fellow Named Jay Retard

Back in October an album was released and some (most really) probably dismissed it out of hand. At least you might have dismissed it if you were keyed in enough to know it had been released. It was made by the front man of a sub-par Queers rip off band. It has a fairly horrific album cover. The fellows "last name" is Reatard. Indeed the moniker of his sub-Dwarves home base is The Reatards. All this stacked against him and yet it turns out it might be the best slice of vintage sounding/feeling protopunk since the Exploding Hearts ended their too brief run.

The songs inspite of their brevity rarely hunker down on repetition or lowered expectations. Each is frothy and sweet melodically without losing it's ragged, aggressive swagger. Say what you will about him; Jay Reatard is the real deal and Blood Visions is the sort of album that reveals a depth that the artist himself couldn't of strived for. It's that rare serendipitous brilliance we all wait for.

Jay Reatard has probably shot this album in the foot. I have a picture in my head (perhaps it's a crude stereo type) of a number of "real" punk kids (the leather jacket and colored hair set) hearing this album and tearing apart it's sincerity and it's amazing sense of melody. I have another equally sad picture in my head of an "indie" kid (listening to Tapes N' Tapes, perhaps a copy of the latest issue of Magnet under his arm) seeing the cover reading the name and never thinking about the album again accept to make himself feel better about how much more "enlightened" his interests are. These are sad pictures because albums like Blood Visions don't come along very often. It's terrible to let them keep drifting by.

Check out Jay Reatard on MySpace.

This album was recommended to me by Paul Bruno, check him out when he DJ's.