Send "Jack Penate " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Thephoenix |
 Not everything is new on Everything Is New, this young London singer's sophomore set, but enough is to make you wonder what on earth persuaded Jack Peñate to ditch the ample charms of his terrific debut. On 2007's Matinée, Peñate was a blue-eyed maximum-R&B man in the mold of Jam-era Paul Weller; his tempos were fast and his melodies taut, with no shortage of tidy guitar fuzz to drive everything home.Here, working with Bloc Party producer Paul Epworth, he slows the music down and cleans up most of the street-corner grime, as if he'd moved on from the Jam to Weller's Style Council years. Love the Style Council, yet on Everything Is New the shift results in a conspicuous lack of tension or drama — which is precisely what distinguished Peñate's early stuff from that of his new-Britpop peers. He still carries off some nice moments, as in "Tonight's Today," a shuffling little rumination on the wee-hours experience, and "So Near," which moves at a respectable disco-soul clip. But Everything Is Not Quite As Good might have been a more accurate title....full text |
| Telegraph |
| Delightfully scruffy disco vaguely reminiscent of Orange Juice and Aztec Camera. Shucking off his lo-fi mockney origins, Penate has got his glitterball spinning. While retaining an edgy vocal spirit of real life in philosophical songs about love and death, Penate’s zestful arrangements conjure Saturday Night Fever grooves. Touching, clever and poptastic. Telegraph rating: * * * *...full text |
| Drownedinsound |
| Jack Peñate's record label XL have had a little bit of a dig at his debut, Matinée. The blurb that accompanies the promotional release of follow up Everything Is New describes the Peñate who made 2007's top ten debut album as a 'kid,' producing 'good stuff, but not stirring, take-your-head-off stuff.' The first record was immature, they say, the new one is inspired by the lo-fi krautrock, Philly soul, bashment and reggaeton movements. The label hierarchy couldn't have been that disgruntled. Reaching number seven in the charts and going gold is hardly a let down for an act that would normally make a polite impression on MySpace before disappearing almost entirely from memory. While the majority of Matinée's reviews suggest that disappearing from memory may not have been such a bad career move for poor ol' Jack (DiS served up a stinging 3/10 pummelling), anyone with any kind of musical instinct will have been able to presage its follow up....full text |
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