Cassette Review: Leonard Las Vegas "Jagmoor Appendix" (Blackjack Illuminist Records)

[€4 // Edition of 10 // https://blackjackilluministrecords.bandcamp.com/album/jagmoor-appendix]

As I've previously reviewed the Leonard Las Vegas cassette "Jagmoor Cynewulf", I see this, as an appendix, as being in the sense that it is something you would want to get as a companion piece to the previous cassette.   While it can certainly stand on its own, I think it limits itself in the sense that if you're going to own "Jagmoor Appendix" you should own "Jagmoor Cynewulf" as well, and in that sense if you don't have "Cynewulf" you shouldn't really have "Appendix"-- at least not as cassettes.   You can always download both of them and make one giant playlist.   (And, as always, kick in the money for the download because they deserve it)

While I do hear elements of The Beatles in this Leonard Las Vegas cassette again, I also can hear what is a cross between something such as Ben Kweller and a post-punk band.   I think it'd be kind of like if the members of Joy Division got together with someone like Kweller as their frontman-- it would have a similar effect of being poppy yet dark.  There is this raw, wildness to it, yet at the same time it could be somewhere between Weezer and something from the "Breakfast Club" soundtrack.

As the songs can also take on this classic psych rock feel, I'm reminded of the Stone Temple Pilots sound of "Lady Picture Show" and that sort of span of songs-- which I will always enjoy hearing pulled as references some twenty years later though it feels like yesterday still.  And overall this is just one of those things where the music is similar enough to "Cynewulf" that you know it's Leonard Las Vegas and it's still great, but you're not sitting there thinking "more of the same" which is a thought I do get from a lot of artists, sadly.

It is also worth noting- whether it is a coincidence or not- that during my first review, and listening to "Cynewulf" still, I feel like there is this sense that can best be described as "simple yet effective" (which I better explain in the review itself) and so it's funny to me that there is a line in one of the songs "So simple, I didn't see it coming".    While it is likely not in reference to the music for me it very well could be.    Everything about this cassette breaks down into that line because it really is quite obvious: If you own "Cynewulf", you need to own this one.  If you don't own "Cynewulf" and don't feel like having both cassettes for whatever reason, then download them both and make your ears happy.