On the Blank Generation Review by Susan Bachner

On their debut album, Little Jack Melody and The Young Turks establish the solid beginnings of what has come be their trademark style. This includes a careful production of tightly orchestrated wind instrument arrangements, featuring the tuba. Transposed over the music are quirky, but well organized lyrics that turn everyday events and ideas into surreal dreamscapes. The same set of instruments is used in a variety of genres. Musical styles range from early-’60s lounge (as in “Happily Ever After,” a jazzy lounge take on the Adam and Eve story, played out in a Rat Pack movie of the era, and featuring Frank Sinatra as the man upstairs), oompa band music (such as “Switzerland,” in which strong dissatisfaction with that so-called “holey cheese” they produce, finally leads to a military confrontation in that neutral county), and tango (as in “Tango,” a metaphor about a dysfunctional romance), plus waltzes and more. The slow, deliberate vocal delivery contributes to the detached, otherworldly feel.