Jets to Brazil is a four-piece piano rock band that has risen from the ashes of two highly respected but now defunct proto-emo bands, Jawbreaker and Texas is the Reason (both of which are quite awesome and should be checked out in their own right). The core of the band consists of two people. Blake Schwarzenbach previously provided the vocals for Jawbreaker and now sings/plays piano for Jets to Brazil. Jeremy Chatelain played bass for Texas is the Reason and now plays bass/backup vocals. Both men have fallen away from the raw, hard sounds of their former groups to create a softer melodious sound for Jets to Brazil. The band is known for its intelligent, highly metaphorical lyrics and its catchy, sentimental sounds. Their new album, Perfecting Loneliness does not fall far from the formula the band has used in its last two releases, Orange Rhyming Dictionary and Four Corner Night. They have their obligatory love ballads in “You’re the One I Want,” “Cat Heaven” and “Lucky Charm.” All three are piano driven songs of heartbreak that manage to be sentimental but not trite, which was a problem on their former CDs in songs like “All Things Good and Nice.” The rest of the CD has subject matter including contemporary politics and Schwarzenbach’s anxiety over his skill at writing, which makes for an interesting set of lyrics overall. The CD as a whole, however, lacks much variation. In past albums, Jets to Brazil would have songs ranging from hard rock to piano only to country-tinged acoustics. Perfect Loneliness is distinctly similar in all its songs. It ranges from Indie rock to piano rock and that’s about as far as it goes. It seems that after three CDs, Jets to Brazil may be running out of ideas musically. Not to say this is a bad CD by any means-I’ve listened to it daily since getting it- but if someone asked me to introduce them to some music by Jets, I would recommend the first two CDs before this one. Out of five, I would give this CD three stars, it truly is a quality album, but I must say I expected more from it.

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