Whereas mainstream rock music within the early 90s embraced agitation and angst, Jellyfish set their compass to sweetly baroque pop melodies. The California band arrived on the daybreak of the last decade throughout a time of transition for rock music, the rise of grunge simply on the horizon because the solar started to set on faculty rock and glam steel. Jellyfish didn’t sit comfortably inside any of those types, nonetheless, as an alternative embracing a progressive energy pop sound that owed extra to Todd Rundgren and The Raspberries than Weapons ‘n’ Roses or The Smiths.
Shaped by keyboardist Roger Joseph Manning and drummer/vocalist Andy Sturmer, two high-school associates and former members of Beatnik Seashore, Jellyfish crafted their sound from a spread of influences that weren’t essentially in vogue in 1990 – ”someplace between Queen and the Partridge Household,” as Manning stated on the time. That didn’t tamp down curiosity within the up-and-coming act, although, with Charisma successful an eight-label bidding warfare to launch their debut album.
Although industrial success got here slowly, pleasure across the launch of the band’s debut Bellybutton reached a fever pitch amongst critics, incomes widespread popularity of its hook-driven pop songs laden with elaborate preparations. Produced by Albhy Galuten, finest identified for his work on the soundtrack to Saturday Night time Fever, Bellybutton put a decidedly trendy gloss on songs washed in a retro tint. The group didn’t shrink back from these signifiers: The backdrop of the video for “That Is Why” depicted the band towards swirling, psychedelic ‘60s backdrops, whereas the track itself carried refrain harmonies worthy of energy pop heroes Large Star.
Rounded out by ex-Three O’Clock guitarist Jason Falkner, the group delivered a set of formidable pop music. First single “The King Is Half-Undressed” has a grand, progressive association that evokes the grandeur of psychedelic-era Beatles, whereas “Now She Knows She’s Wrong” carries the same Merseybeat gait. And on “All I Want Is Everything,” the group even proved themselves adept at delivering a driving arduous rock track. Brilliant and magnetic as these songs are, nonetheless, Sturmer’s lyrics often delved into darker subject material, like home abuse on “She Still Loves Him” and absent fathers on “The Man I Used To Be.”
With a glowing reception that included a five-star evaluation from Q and supported by a tour with the Black Crowes, Bellybutton nonetheless offered solely 100,000 copies in its first yr of launch, falling far wanting expectations. Its periods have been additionally fraught with disagreement, Manning and Sturmer typically butting heads over artistic selections. In its aftermath, Jason Falkner left the group over emotions that his contributions had been diminished.
Regardless of the shakeup throughout the band, Jellyfish moved ahead with plans for an formidable second album. The yr main as much as the creation of their second album, Spilt Milk, discovered Manning and Sturmer within the firm of their heroes, because the duo contributed to Time Takes Time, the 1992 solo album by The Beatles’ Ringo Starr, in addition to a songwriting session with The Seashore Boys’ Brian Wilson that Manning known as “utterly surreal.” Sadly, nothing of substance got here from that session, however these experiences galvanized the songwriting duo to create what they known as their “masterpiece,” 1993’s Spilt Milk.
From the outset, the Seashore Boys affect on Spilt Milk is obvious, most importantly on first track “Hush,” that includes a beautiful a cappella association recalling Wilson and firm at their Pet Sounds finest. For that matter, The Beatles affect is simply as palpable on a track like “Sabrina, Paste and Plato,” including just a few prog-rock touches to a bouncy melody harking back to “Penny Lane.”
Within the absence of Falkner, the band enlisted two session guitarists, Lyle Workman and Jon Brion, the latter of whom would later embark on a protracted and productive profession in manufacturing. However whereas the band itself had scaled again to a trio, Jellyfish’s ambition noticed them creating one thing that sounded much more grand and elaborate. By the plinky organ tones of “New Mistake,” the band channeled the progressive pop of Supertramp, and on the hovering ballad “Glutton of Sympathy,” reluctant frontman Andy Sturmer is given a platform to ship an much more impassioned vocal efficiency.
The album’s biggest second is “All Is Forgiven,” one of the dramatic preparations within the band’s repertoire, which features a suspenseful pin-drop silence mid-song. And as soon as once more, there’s a robust vocal from Sturmer, whose vary and depth appeared to foretell the dynamic efficiency of Jeff Buckley.
Equally praised by critics however falling brief in gross sales numbers, Spilt Milk’s efficiency didn’t bode nicely for the way forward for the group. The method of creating the file noticed the fissures in Manning and Sturmer’s artistic relationship starting to widen, and although they have been proud of the ultimate consequence, Sturmer stated it “took too long and cost too much” to make. Such laments impressed the title of the file, a reference to the idiom “there’s no use crying over spilt milk.”
After just a few failed makes an attempt at writing new materials, the group known as it quits by April of 1994. Within the aftermath of the breakup, Sturmer principally laid low, composing music for cartoons and youngsters’s programming, in addition to producing the Japanese group Puffy AmiYumi, whereas Manning began Imperial Drag and The Moog Cookbook, in addition to contributing to data by Beck and Air.
Lengthy after the members parted methods, nonetheless, the music of Jellyfish continued to achieve new listeners, and traces of their kaleidoscopic pop sound echo via subsequent data by Ben Folds 5, Fountains of Wayne, and Eels. As temporary because the band’s story is – spanning a scant 5 years – Jellyfish left an influence greater than file gross sales may measure.
