{"id":12824,"date":"2024-12-24T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/?p=12824"},"modified":"2026-05-07T19:27:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T00:27:50","slug":"album-review-jamboree-summerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2024\/12\/24\/album-review-jamboree-summerland\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review :: Jamboree :: Summerland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Sumerland<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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by Mykhailo Vil\u2019yamson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there was one place that I could live, it would be California. But for reasons manifold, it\u2019ll never happen. Second best is travelling there, which I had the chance to do earlier this spring \u2013 after saving for years \u2013 and along my way down the coast I stopped in a little place called Summerland: population 1300-ish. There\u2019s a song by the same name from the mid-\u201990s by Everclear where frontperson Art Alexakis sings: \u201cJust a name on the map \/ Sounds like heaven to me.\u201d And stopping at the beach was just like that: a dream. But it was an illusion; an ephemeral fantasy. Because after my few days on the coast, it was back to landlocked Manitoba with only a one-minute video of the surf as a souvenir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It reminds me of Jamboree\u2019s latest full-length release \u2013 also sharing the title Summerland<\/em>. However, instead of that song off the certified platinum Sparkle and Fade<\/em> or that alluded-to small town in the Golden State, apparently the primary inspiration for these ten tracks is a 16-story apartment complex in Winnipeg: the one with a greenhouse atrium in between, allowing for non-native tropical plants to grow year-round (i.e., providing some sort of artificial escape for residents from the white hell of winter). Did Alex Braun, Nick Lavich or Sky Parenteau themselves frequent the cement-walled courtyard of 77 University Crescent? Unknown. But like this simulated paradise, what the album itself hints at is that one can never really escape the distress of living. One might have a veneer of contentment \u2013 as with the first two songs, \u201cLate Summer\u201d and \u201cSystems\u201d \u2013 but much of existence is a trying and failing to experience everything in its right place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summerland<\/em> is indie rock par excellence, with a good balance of quiet-loud dynamism, multiple layers of guitars, endearingly wavering vocals, and lots of distorted undertones. Full of introspection, \u201cYou Watched Me Play Hockey\u201d and \u201cPunk Mentality\u201d allude to deep-seated feelings of lack or missing something that would imaginably bring satisfaction. The singing on \u201cRubber Ducks\u201d and \u201cSummerland, MB\u201d is almost Nic Dyson-esque sonically and thematically. \u201cWonder Bread\u201d does actually have some Everclear vibes, with the highlight for me being Braun yelling \u201cfeed the ducks\u201d near the song\u2019s end. Then there\u2019s the 48-second dreamy interlude \u201cFruit Flies,\u201d the alt-folk ballad \u201cDancing in the Fire,\u201d and the album\u2019s conclusion: a reflective instrumental postlude called \u201cSummerland Sound.\u201d In the band\u2019s own words, \u201cSummerland<\/em> conjures its own endless summer that’s always about to fall apart,\u201d and they definitely succeed in creating such a soundscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find the latest album by Jamboree on Bandcamp \u2013 released June 28th of this year \u2013 alongside their three other LPs and six EPs that have been released since 2018. They\u2019ve been busy, and my guess is that it won\u2019t be long before we hear from them again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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