AMG Review of Everything Is New

James Christopher Monger
All Music Guide

Shape-shifting London-based pop auteur Jack Peñate's 2007 debut was slick and soulful 2-Tone ska revival that had its sights clearly aimed at establishing a rapport with the notoriously fickle U.K. singles charts. Clearly unsatisfied artistically, Peñate decided to try out a slew of other genres for 2009's aptly titled Everything Is New, an effervescent nine-track rendering of Afro-beat, dance-pop, tropicalia, and blue-eyed soul that flirts with greatness enough to warrant subsequent spins. It's a neat and tidy little album with more than a few big ideas, with highlights coming from "Tonight's Today" and "So Near," which fuse the Specials' "Free Nelson Mandela" with Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," and "Let's All Die," a straight-up rocker that conjures up images of Darkness/Hot Leg frontman Justin Hawkins covering a previously unreleased Lily Allen tune. Like Peñate's closest contemporary, the U.K.-based multinational Guillemots, Peñate's enthusiasm for not only his source material, but for the empty canvas of 21st century commercial music itself, feels genuine enough, resulting in an infectious club- and radio-ready collection of cosmopolitan pop that feels both familiar and expansive.