Careful Houndy

Description

Infectious Solo Pop Debut From Jeans Wilder Of The Mean Jeans. The Hound of Love is the synth-pop side project of Andrew Bassett from Mean Jeans, aka Jeans Wilder. While Mean Jeans are known primarily for their pop-punk, The Hound of Loves first release Careful Houndy demonstrates the wanton wackiness of Mean Jeans spread out across a new genre. For the most part, Careful Houndy explores the various sub-genres of 80s synth pop. Album opener Action Sequence balances the bopping dance cadence of an 80s club along with the darker undercurrents of the then-rising goth scene, creating an instrumental that could have fit on the more threatening Flock of Seagulls tracks. On ParabolsebalouieGOAL the dystopian, cold sounds of Tubeway Army are explored across a buzzing instrumental that could have fit in Blade Runner. But, while the album is about half instrumentals, the album really takes off with the vocal cuts, each of which exhibit the anything goes mentality of the earliest punk rock. If Not For You is an absolutely perfect slice of synth-pop, showing that no matter the exterior trappings, teenage love songs remain indelible. Likewise, Ditdit Dutdut stretches out the bride from an old love song into a computerized jam that borrows from Chic and Konrad Plank. The collision is a new mix that highlights both the high points of those styles as well as the interesting meeting of them. The collision is random and shows how sometimes, things completely at odds mix together to make music that is fresh and timeless.