Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall

Rating

: * * * *

Verdict:

Chris Knox's mate delivers catchy noise pop album.

He's a prolific young lout this Jay Reatard (real name Jay Lindsey), the garage punk rocker from Memphis, Tennessee.

While

Watch Me Fall

is only his second album under this name, he has released numerous seven-inch singles, EPs and albums under many different guises since starting to make a racket back in 1998.

Watch Me Fall

is Reatard at his melodic and rambling best, bringing to mind the fitful sonic punk of the Buzzcocks (especially on

Faking It

and

Can't Do It Anymore

), but with more of a slap-dash, and laid-back execution in the vein of Dinosaur Jr. And with the see-sawing synth-come-organ element and noisy jaunt of songs like

Man Of Steel

and

Rotten Mind

he has more than a passing similarity to our very own bubblegum punks the Mint Chicks.

Wounded

and

My Reality

both have a high-falutin' poppy sweetness about them;

It Ain't Gonna Save Me

is so simple and ridiculously infectious that you will be singing along to it the first time you hear it; and last track,

There Is No Sun

, is a porch song laced with strings that gives you an inkling of the fact that Reatard is a good southern boy after all.

Meanwhile, Reatard is also contributing a song to the covers album for Chris Knox, with whom he was going to collaborate until Knox suffered a stroke in June.

Scott Kara