Jeniferever Choose a Bright Morning
Genre: Indie-Rock
Top Songs: A Ghost In The Corner Of Your Eye, The Sound of Beating Wings
Record Label: Drowned In Sound
By BMcMahon

Let’s just say nobody knows about Jeniferever, except for those tireless few that have managed to scour the Internet and the friends of friends who have passed this CD onward. Residing in Uppsala, Sweden, where scenic, mountainous landscapes carry a chilling atmosphere, Jeniferever has translated their beautiful surroundings into a transient melody. Their most recent release, Choose A Bright Morning, is now spreading faster and gaining speed over the Internet as Europe slowly embraces this quartet’s sound. But unless you live in Denmark, The Netherlands, France or Spain, there’s a good chance you won’t be seeing them perform anytime soon.

If you’re familiar with the work of The Appleseed Cast, or have possibly lost yourself listening to Explosions in the Sky, Jeniferever’s debut full-length album Choose A Bright Morning might be your new friend. Falling into the category of shoegaze with the developing soundscapes like that of Hammock, and post rock with the guitar development of Mogwai, Jeniferever has uniquely composed an album combining these essential elements.

Careening sweeps of strings begin this album with "From Across The Sea". The mellow, moody ambience carries side-by-side with subtle, short-breathed lyrics from lead singer, Kristofer Jönson. The vocals are soft, light and are swept right along as though fluid with stringy echoes in the backdrop. The most compelling song on the album is "The Sound of Beating Wings", in which the strings and melodies are the most impressive. The drum beat, guitars and combination of melodies are a refreshing change of pace for the album, which is otherwise, very low-tempo.

Vocals: 7.0 Album flow: 7.3 Sound: 8.2 Overall Album: 7.7 Reviewer’s Tilt: 8

As the album progresses, the album stretches itself out. Made up of only nine tracks, CABM fills up a complete hour of music averaging eight minutes per song. Tracks such as "Winter Nights" (11:07) really give off that lonely, cold feeling of a bleak, snowy day extending the song well past the norm of any song on the album. "Opposites Attract" (9:02) and "Marks" may also lull the listener into deep thought as a lonely banjo plays the counterpart. Other songs such as "There’s a Ghost In The Corner Of Your Eye" (5:31), another highlight of the album, appears shorter and more to the point as most other tracks may appear the first listen through.

Don’t skip through each track if you so feel the urge to, even though there’s a lull or two in performance. Give this full album a chance to breathe and circulate the room. Each track is not the lyrics. It’s not the guitar, drums and the melodies you hear. Choose A Bright Morning is what it feels like to be soaring in the atmosphere, drifting on a glacier in the Artic moonlight, or the feeling of your soul rising out of your body, watching the world from afar. Jeniferever is not popular right now and will most likely never be a radio success, but they’ve laid themselves out there for everyone to hear. As popularity grows in Europe, their biggest current crowd residing in England, there is future hope for the band’s success.

If you’re not fully impressed, have faith. Jeniferever has taken such a considerable step up from their 2005 release of Iris EP, since the band’s novice beginnings in 1996. With better quality and a less dirty indie sound, the band has ditched most of their earliest resemblances from their first self-titled Jeniferever EP and is now beginning to bloom. Turn this album up and let it blare; your neighbors might just love you for it.