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Written by Mary Beth Hascall Tuesday, 22 September 2009 13:53

And We Wake Up Slowly is the dose we music listeners need to swallow to lift our spirits once again.

Brooklyn’s latest export to the musical world is the fresh-sounding three-piece Jaguar Club. The indie-wave rock trio has created a powerful debut with And We Wake Up Slowly.

After a guitar dreamy beginning, the disc’s self-titled track floats seamlessly into “Sleepwalking,” with tambourine and heavy bass lines that show signs of Adam Clayton’s heavy fingers. Will Popadic’s vocals soar convincingly along with his guitar chords. “Where No Wild Things Are” is a fun play on words with Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s storybook. The drum hits remind one of marching off to a new adventure that will only last one night. Left, right, left, right, but be careful not to fall.

“Cork’s Pop” has a light driving force, with synths and echoes that twinge of sadness, self-doubt and flecks of hope we all feel at the beginning of a new year. The melancholy seeps out with lines such as, “Strange feeling it’s been done before/ said much better than I/ well, that’s the way of the world today/ steady on, steady on.” Jaguar Club goes on to pen a brief ode to their influences with the line, “We are children of the Eighties,” and I see nothing wrong with that at all.

Smooth swagger describes both “Future Sounds” and “Blood Pressure, tracks that delightfully feature Popadic’s harried howls. “This Summer” slows the pace down with serious message about being caretakers to our families and to the world. “Out of the City” returns And We Wake Up Slowly to an uptempo vibe, with Yoichiro Fujita’s gorgeous bass and Jeremiah Joyce’s crisp percussion flowing along with Popadic’s highs and lows, both fretfully and vocally.

Jaguar Club has brought back a unique quality from the ‘80s that got lost in all that grimy, self-loathing flannel of the ’90s. It transports the mind back to a more hopeful time where anything is possible. And We Wake Up Slowly is the dose we music listeners need to swallow to lift our spirits once again for a very affordable price. A | Mary Beth Hascall

RIYL: The Walkmen, U2, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Church, Talking Heads