The best – and simplest – trick Jagwar Ma have pulled off is delivering an album with no rubbish on it.
The accomplished sonic collages of Howlin' finely balance Jagwar Ma's influences and in doing so transcends into something singularly thrilling and cohesive.
Howlin is the kind of record designed for the live setting, as it’s just impossible to have the kind of party you’d need to fully appreciate it alone in your bedroom
'Howlin' works impeccably as a whole. Equally uplifting and calming, it's the dancefloor via the beach.
The duo find ways to keep things interesting even they're at their most straightforward, and it's this that makes Howlin such a fascinating album.
Howlin is an intoxicating first showing from a band with bags of potential and, although it loses its way somewhat towards the end, it is brimming with the confidence of a vastly more experienced band.
It’s silly enough to cause skepticism and charming enough to make you wonder what kind of scrutiny Screamadelica or Thrills, Pills & Bellyaches would meet if they were released in 2013.
The pastiche is overpowering at times, reminding you of too many acts plus one, but Jagwar Ma’s happy-go-lucky brashness is irresistible.
Their debut album Howlin continues to burrow into the baggy aesthetic, delivering luminously lit melodies led by anagogic lyrical structures.
These inconsistencies wind up making Howlin’ somewhat of a hit or miss affair. But the hits are so strong that you won’t mind trudging through a few missteps along the way.
Somewhere between Primal Scream and Tame Impala...but strangely I think I prefer this to most Primal Scream and Tame Impala.
An album that never veers too far from the established canon of the post-Impala, but manages to overcome the hurdles of many of their contemporaries by melding all of the references into something refreshing. Lyrical loops, earworms galore, and a nonstop flow of good vibes, the first 8 tracks in particular ooze with energy. It's aged remarkably well, and their follow-up struggles to reach the altitude they touched with this.
An album that never veers too far from the established canon of the post-Impala, but manages to overcome the hurdles of many of their contemporaries by melding all of the references into something refreshing. Lyrical loops, earworms galore, and a nonstop flow of good vibes, the first 8 tracks in particular ooze with energy. It's aged remarkably well, and their follow-up struggles to reach the altitude they touched with this.
1 | What Love 3:53 | 95 |
2 | Uncertainty 4:02 | 90 |
3 | The Throw 6:43 | 95 |
4 | That Loneliness 2:52 | 90 |
5 | Come Save Me 5:14 | 90 |
6 | Four 6:32 | 95 |
7 | Let Her Go 2:56 | 90 |
8 | Man I Need 3:36 | 90 |
9 | Exercise 4:04 | 85 |
10 | Did You Have To 2:59 | 85 |
11 | Backwards Berlin 5:37 | 80 |
#9 | / | FasterLouder |
#11 | / | Q Magazine |
#11 | / | Rough Trade |
#13 | / | Under the Radar |
#16 | / | NME |
#23 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#23 | / | Gigwise |
#41 | / | Urban Outfitters |
#46 | / | The Fly |
#69 | / | PopMatters |