Australian band The Jungle Giants are coming back strong from their canceled 2020 world tour with a new album, Love Signs. The band made up of lead singer Sam Hales, guitarist Cesira Aitken, bassist Andrew Dooris and drummer Keelan Bijker has been creating albums together since 2013. Love Signs is their fourth LP.
The album is aptly named as it is made up mostly of love songs, and q few songs that aren’t, but are still about love. Stylistically however, the album breaks new ground for Hales who spent his time under lock down focused on the album, and exploring a falsetto vocal style for himself. His creative drive, and the bands seems to have paid off.
Love Signs opens with its title track, and with the instantly recognizable sound of a phone ringing, a good hook for a fun song with a phone theme running through its effects and lyrics. “Treat You Right” which follows feels a little more serious and a little less gimmicky, its sound relying on a strong contrast in the driving rhythm and the slow melody. “In Her Eyes” continues this style of layering up the instrumentation and synths to build a complete sound.
You can listen to Love Signs below
The following song “Send Me Ur Love” is one of the album’s several platinum singles and it is clear why it might have a wide appeal. Yet another fun and catchy love song, it also leans more into the electronic side of The Jungle Giant’s sound, giving the listener plenty of reason to get up and dance.
“Heartless” the next song on the album is a bit of a divergence, not only is it the least love song like piece, it also takes a more creative turn, with its synths and key giving it a spooky energy to follow through with the title and balance out their usual sound. “Charge Your Phone” on the other hand is less than stand out. The phone effects from “Love Signs” make their return and they’re a bit less fun the second time around. Hales’ exaggerated vocals also reach a point of being a bit too much in this song, despite their good fit for the album over all. Luckily the album doesn’t stay at this low and Hales comes back swinging in “Heavy Hearted” which has more of a soul feel than a standard pop song.
The album for the most part finishes up strong, though with a few choices that show the seams on the bands creative stretch. “Here I Come” and “Something Got Between Us” are both catchy with a good balance of the physical instruments and the synth. “Monstertruck” which has an eye-catchingly odd title compared to the rest of the album, doesn’t offer up much explanation upon listing to it. It is another love song, saccharinely sweet and talking about marriage… and also talking about monstertrucks. Perhaps another listener may have better luck than me understanding what connects the two topics.
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Love Signs as an album sets out to deliver on a theme, and for the most part it does. While a few notes here and there fall flat, overall it’s fun, catchy and well crafted. This is music that will hold up through plenty of listens. Fans of Love Signs, and The Jungle Giants other works can look forward to seeing them back on tour again in February of 2022.
