The Youjsh – I Can’t Believe Steve Day Is OK With This EP
The whole of the EP’s music has a glossiness to it that makes it very easy to digest, which for a jazz album, I am very surprised by. This is not to say I don’t enjoy a hard-to-process jazz album, but this one, like certain variations of animal crackers, have a glaze over them that makes the journey smooth, light, and quite tasty. It’s hard to simply lump The Youjsh into one genre when you have all these different styles going on at once, and for that, each listen becomes a different experience. One of the record’s obvious highlights, the upbeat and orchestral “Don’t You Think She’s A Bit Young For You Steve Day?” has a repetition that is common over the course of this EP, but don’t let that fool you because as it turns out, each track is an epic adventure of it’s own, mixing elements of pop, jazz, klezmer. Each piece feels like an improvisation, which only adds some faux-mystery into the mix. A strong presence of brass and woodwind instruments like sax, clarinet and trumpet, along with the more mainstream piano, bass and drums make this EP more of an album for people who like music for what it is and nothing else. There is no vocalist singing mundane choruses just to make the music more accessible to the mainstream, which I think is one of this band’s strong points.
Strong musicianship, quirky song titles all referring to Steve Day and a pervasive upbeat, happy feeling make this a real gem of an EP. Maybe my Bar Mitzvah would have been more fun if I had these guys performing instead of a DJ playing “YMCA” and “Time Warp”. – Jordan Ghetler
Be sure to check out The Youjsh live tomorrow night, April 24th at Green Room where they will be officially launching their debut EP. Tiny Dictators opening.
