Eskimo Joe – The First Time (2024)
From Fremantle, WA, Australia, Eskimo Joe has spent over two decades developing a following of listeners that have won them numerous accolades, including a top 50 chart position for 62 weeks on the Australia Recording Industry Association (ARIA) charts for their 2006 album, Black Fingernails, Red Wine. Their last studio album of original material came out in 2013, so it is probably with some anticipation that fans receive the new single ‘The First Time’.
Throughout the last six albums, the band has explored the ins and outs of their guitar-driven indie-rock in a direction that generally melded with a slick pop-rock sound. In some ways, ‘The First Time’ returns to their guitar rock days. It starts quietly through the first verse and builds to a full stop in which bassist and vocalist Kavyen Temperly sings, “I used to smoke cigarettes”; the band kicks in and he sings, “Now I’m just gasping for some air.” The plaintive titular question, “Don’t you want to feel like it’s the first time?” is the map for the song’s quest through nostalgia to renew a floundering relationship.
If Eskimo Joe intended the song to signal a return to their days in the early 2000s, they did it well. It sounds more like that period than the material they released at that time. If there’s such a thing as retroactive radio appeal, this song has it. Since the lyrics play off nostalgia, the music works fairly well, but if this indicates what the rest of the forthcoming album holds that may not be good news. ‘The First Time’ is catchy and peppy but it doesn’t exactly run deep. On the other hand, the band has done a lot as a trio incorporating a variety of sounds and textures into their music, so there’s every reason to hope that their forthcoming album will do the same.
For more from Eskimo Joe, check out their official website, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Spotify.
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