Jade Hairpins
Harmony Avenue
Release Date: May 29, 2020
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Pop, New Wave/Post-Punk Revival, Alternative Dance
Record label: Merge
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Harmony Avenue from Amazon
Album Review: Harmony Avenue by Jade Hairpins
Great, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Jade Hairpins is the work of two members of the band Fucked Up, and if anyone is looking to them for the same kind of fiery punk drama, they are barking up the wrong tree. While it's true that Jonah Falco drums for Fucked Up and Mike Haliechuk plays guitar and writes songs, here Falco takes over the guitar and vocal duties while Haliechuk handles the bass and the band is influenced by highly danceable post-punk, rambunctious indie pop, and post-Postcard Orange Juice. Their debut album, Harmony Avenue, bounces joyously from bracing, highly infectious guitar pop songs like "J Terrapin" and "Mary Magazine" to stripped-down, danceable songs ("Don't Break My Devotion," "Post No Bill") that come across like a snappier, more focused LCD Soundsystem thanks to the elastic grooves, burbling synths, and Falco's declamations.
Based on rating 8
"Overthinking isn't really what I'm born to be," states Jonah Falco on 'Harmony Avenue's opening track, the punning 'J Terrapin'. It's as close as you'll get to a manifesto on Jade Hairpins' debut album, and serves as useful guidance for interpreting the 80s-tinged luminescence on display - if at times it feels like playacting, or even a compilation album rather than the work of one band, that's at least part of the point. A compilation album, you say? Well, yeah.
Based on rating 7/10
There were no further details about the band available online, but the label were curiously promoting the latest Fucked Up record released on the same day. Now the band - made up of Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk of Fucked Up - are ready to claim their name with debut album Harmony Avenue. The band deal in wonky power-pop and post-punk, all braying guitars and off-hand lyricisms which embody both characters of the band's creation as well as their own personal rhetoric.
Based on rating 7/10
Jade Hairpins is an apt name for this Toronto- and London-based group — their sound is lovely and delicate but also pretty sharp. Led by Fucked Up members Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk, Jade Hairpins dates back to 2018, initially conceived as an addendum to Fucked Up's album of that year, Dose Your Dreams. On debut album Harmony Avenue, joined by Tamsin M Leach and Jack Goldstein, Jade Hairpins continue the expansion while bending in a different direction.
'Harmony Avenue'
is available now