My Radio Heart is the first single from Jetplane Landing’s new album Don’t Try. In the words of N.I. music geek Johnny Reid, it is outstanding. As in, you could dislike this band and dislike this album but struggle to dislike this song. That’s how pop-tacular it is. Summer festival anthem ahoy!
Moments after I’d posted last night’s update, I found the link to the new Jetplane Landing single My Radio Heart. Hiding in plain sight on my Facebook timeline no less. Grrr. Single reviews aren’t common on this site but as you may have noticed from my Return of Jetplane Landing piece, I’ll happily make an exception.
The idea of putting a number or grade on a piece of music has always struck me as ridiculous. It’s up there with not wanting to buy an album unless you recognise at least two singles from it. Yet websites like Metacritic generate massive amounts of traffic from aggregating these scores. Which is why the video game site kotaku always appeals to me with its should I buy this? yes/no approach to reviews. It’s simple, brilliant, and avoids contributing to the situation where some gamers will refuse to buy a title unless it scores 8/10 or higher. As if somehow reading one person’s opinion was enough to form your own.
For promo purposes it helps a band if their release gets a high score but likewise you could suffer from unfair comparisons to bands who have more money than sense.
Even if you’ve never been all that fussed about Jetplane Landing it’s worth checking out the new single. It’s possibly the best track on their latest album Don’t Try and one that makes you want to play it again on a constant loop. Traditional music review words you’d expect would include catchy, infectious, life-affirming and anthemic. Those words bore me but they are, in this case, accurate.
At Pet Piranha HQ the review test comes down to one thing: how much fun is it to air drum to? And bonus points if it happens involuntarily. For example, opening album track on Don’t Try ‘Cheapskate Tricks…’ has a breakdown section that comes back in at 3:32 and I always come back in too early. My air drumming skills are patchy at best. My Radio Heart opens with a beat you just have to air drum along to.
One of the best bits in My Radio Heart is when Andrew Ferris sings the line, “I do believe you now” and the word now is sung in such a heavy Derry accent that I can’t help but grin and repeat it myself. Thing is it’s not just an accent thing because the whole album is full of local references.
If there was a Single of the Week award this song would surely win it.
LISTEN TO MY RADIO HEART BY JETPLANE LANDING ON SOUNDCLOUD
