Darwin Deez and his debut opened our Top 5 countdown yesterday, which you can read here.  Today its the turn of the Mystery Jets, and their pop semi-classic Serotonin.

Released date:  05th July 2010

Released on:     Rough Trade


It shouldn’t have been a surprise just how much a pop record Serotonin was; the indicators were there with the Mystery Jets previous record Twenty One which, in the space of a couple of chorus’s that would dominate sticky dancefloors to this day, turned them from grotty Eel Island ragbags into genuine British indie contenders.  Serotonin took the central parts of ‘Two Doors Down’, ‘Young Love’ et al and made them seem like studio floor castoffs from a particularly drawn-out Captain Beefheart bongo session.

And as the music itself got bigger, so the mood of the album changed.  Whilst Twenty One was, as the name might suggests, all half-laments and lustings, Serotonin is the sound of boys that are fast becoming men.  The second and third lines of opener ‘Alice Springs’- "and love is a taste you get on the tip of your tongue/better to have loved and lost than to have lived and never loved anyone"- displays this better than any and, though possibly trite in the hands of another collective, with Blaine and his stragglers it suits the mood of the mid-20’s city-dwelling, bed-hopping so-and-so perfectly.

Of course, its not all love and roses as demonstrated by ‘Flash A Hungry Smile’ and its pretty self explanatory refrain of ‘but all you’ve got to do is do it/You know there’s really nothing to it.’  This tune in general perhaps best sums up the album; huge opening synths that kick the shit out of anything Hurts's label have come up have come up with, boys-in-the-band lyrics and the repeated whistling that makes it a contender for 2010’s most enduring ear-worm.   Its pop, its totally pop, but its pop that makes you believe pop's alright.  It makes you realise that a melody and a singalong is good for the soul, that you can live in .East London and not have to pretend to like noise rock, that the definition of a popstar doesn’t have to be a 16 year old boy that reminds Louis Walsh of last Tuesday night.   Basically, as the title says, its all about serotonin.



Amongs others, voted for by Me (4th), Karen Sullivan (2nd), Tom Smith (1st) and Emma Joseph (3rd)

Posted In Features, Dec 07 2010. Words - David