Music Head Wrote:online listen
sounds like MGMT
but I like MGMT
I didn't like this
1.1 from me and a converted 2.1 from allmusic

from the album - Kids Get Away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coOXpCAdQ6I

released Mar 5th, 2013



Bio - from allmusic

Influenced by hip-hop and dancehall, Detroit's Jamaican Queens are an indie pop trio that
shares the synth pop sensibilities of bands like Flaming Lips and MGMT. Adam Pressley and Ryan
Spencer started the group a few months before their previous band, Prussia, broke up, working
off of electronic beats that Presley had recorded in his house. Drummer Ryan Clancey entered
the fold, and the group released a mixtape before making a video for "Kids Get Away," off their
2013 debut full-length, Wormfood.

Album Review - from allmusic

Detroit band Jamaican Queens call their sound "trap pop," building their indie songs around
brittle electronic beats inspired by innovative Southern rap names like Three 6 Mafia and Young
Jeezy. It's a strange hybrid, with layers of acoustic guitar, woozy high vocals, and sawtoothed
synthesizers sitting shakily atop either scattershot drum machine rhythms, blown-out Flaming
Lips-styled live drumming, or beats constructed from samples with sources ranging from ELO to
D'Angelo. Their debut album Wormfood stretches the limits of their skewed pop over nine songs,
growing more and more bleak as the album goes on. Starting with the one-two punch of lead
singles "Water" and "Kids Get Away," the more accessible pop nugget side of Jamaican Queens is
presented with almost power-point straightforwardness. Both songs are full of unexpected and
catchy hooks, crowd-pleasing choruses, and colorful production, all stuffed into right around
four minutes. Lead vocals by Ryan Spencer shift between breathless, obsessive darkness and
flippant lightheartedness reminiscent of Brian Eno's early pop albums. The album takes a left
turn around its halfway mark, dropping its hip-hop and radio pop-informed approach for a series
of gorgeously sad slower tracks. "Wellfleet Outro" rides a haunted sample, with guest vocals by
Abby Fiscus sifting through a ghostly chorus that feels as sad as Sparklehorse and as lost as
Portishead. "Sharkteeth" is based around a more traditional guitar figure, melodically folky at
first, but soon joined by distorted drums and glitchy electronics as the song builds to a
frenzied conclusion. Wormfood's production threatens to obscure the songs at times, but
listening closely, it's possible that this is by design. While the strengths of the songwriting
are less immediate than the pristine, space-filling beats, it's the combination of strong
melody fighting with an overstuffed production palette that makes Jamaican Queens a more
interesting, tense listen than their more bare-bones contemporaries.

Track Listing

1. Water
2. Kids Get Away
3. Black Madonna
4. Annie
5. Wormfood
6. Wellfleet Outro
7. Shark Teeth
8. Asleep at the Wheel
9. Caitlin