Jukebox the Ghost in tier list
right on the edge, starts solidly B+ but moves toward A-, consistent with a fair amount of songs that are pretty good) (most recent album moves toward B I think, not bad but not the parts of JtG I like)
RELISTEN1: this was actually a pretty unexpectedly tough relisten to judge. At first I thought it would be a guaranteed A- or A, then I thought it definitely had to stay a B+, until finally settling back up at a low A-. Jukebox the Ghost has tons of songs that are total bops, sing-along and roll down the windows and just have a good time. Really a good number of ‘em, at least one or two per album plus one album that’s chockfull. But that’s kinda the issue, y’know? Most of the albums aren’t chockfull. They’re decent throughout, definitely enjoyable, but the songs that really make me want to love them are mostly concentrated in their third album, Safe Travels. That’s a great album, super super fun, but it’s not enough to propel the band into a super high ranking all by itself. ‘Cause that’s kinda the thing, y’know? Even the album I love, with huge density of songs I love in it, with the songs I don’t love still being definitely good, even that album I’d only give an 8.4 out of 10. That’s genuinely a high rating, but it’s not “favorite album” levels of high.
And that’s the trouble. For whatever reason, even when I love it I feel like somethings missing. Even when everything is just right, I feel like Jukebox is lacking some kind of depth that I can’t pinpoint or articulate. I think that a lot of that is probably just a mismatch between us. A lot of their songs (most of their songs in every album but Safe Travels) feels like feeler. Not in that they’re low effort, just in that they don’t really have any of the stuff I really like about the band. Because what I really like about the band is all in Safe Travels, and all that stuff I really like (at this point in time) caps out at about an 8.4/10.
So. Yeah. They’ve got almost 20 songs I love, and about 30 more I’d say I just like, which is good numbers, good ratios. Even if I feel like on the whole they kinda tend to be missing something I can’t place, I can’t deny that I really do like them pretty often and a lot. So yeah, I’m a fan. A-
tunafruitsandwitch 