After a label change and minus a drummer in Jay Clark, Jaguar Love are back with a second album in 2010. Now a duo, the band's sound has somewhat changed since last we heard them. While still employing metal, electro and glam into the mix they come out sounding a lot poppier. Jay Clark was basically replaced by a drum machine leaving remaining members Johnny Whitney and Cody Votolato (both who are formerly of the Blood Brothers) to re-examine the direction they wanted to take their music. No longer having to compete with another vocalist, Whitney's screeching vocals are brought to the forefront, and if you can bare through them then you're already half way to liking these guys. Just to give you an idea, on Jaguar Love's last album Take Me To The Sea, Whitney's vocals were compared to a "castrated vulture" or "a deliriously deaf 12-year old". The most irritating track of all is the last hidden track which is the screechiest, most atrocious version of "Piece Of My Heart" (as made famous by Janis Joplin) I have ever heard. If you can avoid that, then this album isn't so bad. The tracks' rhythm range from electro-pop to all-out club beats sometimes accompanied by guitar but mostly driven by 80s-sounding synthesizer. Throw in some very childish lyrics and you get the new Jaguar Love. Don't expect to hear the post-hardcore sound of Blood Brothers, it seems Whitney and Votolato are done with that. This comes off more as a poor man's AFI (Decemberunderground-era) than anything. On a brighter note, this album is bubbling with so much energy, it's hard not to be encapsulated by it. The only question which remains is can Jaguar Love continue on with the same brand of music before fans become bored by it?
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