Jetty Bones - Push Back review

Something I’m sure everyone will be tired of hearing me say is “I’ve seen this name pop up a lot but hadn’t heard anything until recently.” In this case, though, it is true again. Jetty Bones is a name I’ve seen come up in a lot of side bar recommendations and in the news when new tracks were released. That name is usually attached to something like a Heart Attack Man or Hot Mulligan so I honestly thought it was just some pop punk band I wasn’t really allowing myself to pay attention to for one reason or another. What I found in researching the project later on, however, was that it is a solo act orchestrated by Ohio’s Kelc Galluzzo and signed to Rise Records of all things. She seems to have released an EP or two as well as a long string of singles under this name with this as the official debut full length. Now again had no real expectations and was expecting to at least like this enough to get some casual playlist songs based on the singles. What I did not expect was to love this as much as I did and even predict it showing up on my year end lists. (I know, we’re only in February, just bare with me here.)

The first of the singles was “Taking Up Space” which I admittedly didn’t hear till the album dropped. (Look, it came out in October I didn’t start being good about singles until this blog I’m sorry.) While I don’t have much to comment on as far as this song goes I will say it represents the record as a whole quite well and if you aren’t sure what to expect or if you’re interested you should start here. It opens with a riff that sounds straight off a softer moment on a pop punk record but the rest of the song is really country pop but it all blends together so well. It also has a beautifully composed chorus that kind of comes and goes in a flash.

The second single, the one that drew me in the album's direction, was “That’s All.” It’s really short and simple at just two minutes being led by a guitar riff that loops to accompany what almost feels like a straight up rant with a tough situation Kelc is dealing with. Again not much to say compositionally here as that guitar and some synths in the second chorus are all that are really going on though, toward the end the song shifts to have Kelc almost rapping accompanied by some keys and it’s really vocally impressive and is what made me want to check this out on release.

The third and final single coming in the same week as the album's release comes in the form of “Nothing.” This one has an 80s sensibility from start to finish with it's key and drum intro backed by an entrancing vocal melody and ends with a percussion piece that sounds right out of the era. The chorus section is such a hook moment in every aspect as well. The lyrics cover the depression period that comes after a break up and manage to stay fresh and interesting through out, in some sections the chorus isn't even the same lyrically. Another thing that really drew me, though maybe I'm just a sucker for this, is this saxophone solo is so danceable, so infectious it really brings the track to life.

So with the singles giving us a 3-3 track record I was really excited to dive into the full length experience. The album opens with “Waking Up Crying,” which, I’ll be honest, has to be the lowest point on the whole thing for me. The pop guitar chords and drums in the intro sound exactly like Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and the indie bass line sounds like something that would be selected for some high budget visual novel soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong there is absolutely nothing with drawing mainstream influence and I think throughout the record there’s similarities to other artists like Kesha that you could easily pull out but here it just kind of feels unoriginal. The titular lyrics feel kind of shoehorned in as well and I know I’m really pulling the track apart but it does have it’s highs. The electronic outro is quite nice and the rap-like vocal range that made me so excited about the record in the first place shows up here as well.

The next fresh-to-us track comes in the form of “Everything.” (The first of these mirror titles we get.) The intro here is quite nice, smooth vocals being backed by country riffs. I’m just not crazy about the chopped vocal samples in the beginning and laced into an instrumental bridge that could have stood completely fine on it’s own. The verses bring back that rapid fire vocal style but in it's own fresh sort of way. The pre chorus or chorus, not sure here, section sort of sounds like a climactic part of a musical with lyrics powerful enough to match; "everything changes, when you don't take care of it," shifting to "when you don't change with it" for extra effect at the end.

“Ravine” starts off sounding like a Lana Del Ray composition but quickly becomes more personalized when the simple piano ballad becomes a smooth jazz piece going as far as to include a slow saxophone solo this time. If you want a perfect example of just how heart wrenching Kelc can be then just read the lyrics to this track. Describing drinking to cope, having an existential crisis and all sorts of fun things in the like. The last line here really pulls the heartstrings; “I’m getting old, I’m 27, but I might as well be dead.”

Side-b of the record kicks off with “Waking Up Exhausted” which to me is a bit of an odd piece in that it instrumentally works so well as an interlude to carry us to the next half of the record but lyrically I feel it could very well be used to introduce the record as a whole. Originally I was going to nitpick that it should be an intro track even further by pointing out the obviously “waking up” title trend but I’ve come to appreciate the mirrored little scheme here. Also really love the lyrics at the end here; “Welcome to my shit show everybody, I bet this isn’t what you thought you were getting into tonight, now it’s too late, you’re already here.” It really sets the stage for what this second half of the album is lyrically, which is self deprecating humor at it’s finest. At first listen I found the forced delivery of that outro a bit rough to listen to but I’ve come to realize that’s kind of the point and artistically it works really nicely.

“Bad Time” may be one of the best moments on the entire album with it’s sad yet humorous lyrics and simple yet immersive instrumentation. I want to call out the very nice bass and key chorus section here. Specific lines that got me here for example; “If you say that I’m fine, that’s your agenda, but there’s a demon in my heart and I named her Linda.” As well as “I don’t deserve the high appraisals, for pretending that I’m stable, or crying underneath the tip jar on our merch table.” The song also has a feature from Eric Egan of Heart Attack Man (another project that maybe I should finally listen to) who plays the role of a manager character whose doing damage control for the singers blatant honesty and it really works nicely. While I do appreciate how the record is sequenced I can’t help feel like these last two tracks wouldn’t make for a better draw into the experience as a whole as opening tracks.

If you aren’t careful “Dolly” can really catch you off guard as it presents like a fairly basic yet fun country song. Even when you ARE paying attention at points it can still seem pleasant with lines like “thanks for coming over that was awfully nice of you.” When in reality it’s one of the saddest moments here with things like; “I often want to kill myself but I don’t want to die.” Kelc even had to give a trigger warning for this and the closing track “Bug Life” on social media.

“Bad Trick” is one of the truest connections to the pop punk family tree we get with the opening riff and structure of the verses sounding like a sadder cut from a project that is totally of that genre. The lyrics and vocal delivery are sort of hard to listen to in the best way as they sound like a plea for help and the chorus sonically altogether sounds like what inner turmoil feels like. The second verse on calls back to various songs on the record that I’m still catching even post writing the outline for this review and makes even “Waking Up Crying” pay off in a really worthwhile way from a moment on the record that otherwise felt unremarkable to me.

The record closes as I said before with “Bug Life” which is a song that is clear as day about it’s tragedy. We are met once again with the looping riff that works flawlessly. If you thought the previous track’s lyrics were tough to get through this will really hit you hard. In fact “you want friends, friends that live in houses not graves” hit me so hard in the outlining process of this that I had to stop for a moment before even finishing up. Once you get past how hard the chorus is to listen to it’s vocal melody is really stunning as well. Then it ends off with a section of vocals and chords played with voicemails that seem to be taking place over the course of the death of a loved one and it’s just really hard to hear.

Overall like I said I really enjoyed this and expect it to be a big part of my year! I had some nitpicks here and there about some compositional and sequencing choices and frankly side-b hits much harder in almost every way than side-a. As I get through more listens though I almost feel like that’s for the best. The album really blends together pop punk and country pop in ways I didn’t really think possible and I think if you’re a fan of either those two (three?) genres you could easily get immersed in this.