Artist Lemon Jelly
Label XL Recordings
Year 2000
Rating ★★★★★
Summary Happy childhood innocence in music form.

Lemon Jelly's debut album, Lemonjelly.ky, is technically three EPs cobbled together, but it sounds more consistent than many other albums I could name, so let's give it full album status for a second.

One of the two band members was a designer, and that influence shows: this music is not just something to listen to (although it sounds great), it's also functional. It seamlessly blends into the background, lifting your mood without drawing too much attention to itself. It also has slick production, which puts it in the same lofty class as Moby's best album, Play.

The similarities don't end there, as both albums also make extensive use of samples of unfashionably old music, blending them with a diverse array of both acoustic instruments and synthesisers. In both cases, the result is surprisingly good, and the combination ensured the music's success with both home listeners and professionals.

Unlike Moby's Play, the samples in Lemon Jelly's Lemonjelly.ky seem carefully picked to evoke childhood memories, and unlike Boards of Canada, Lemon Jelly don't bring about such a nostalgic state to give you nightmares. They've carved out their own niche, offering you the musical equivalent of sweets.

I'd recommend this to anyone who wants some pleasant background music to put on, which ought to be pretty much everyone, and especially anyone who likes Moby's Play and wants something a bit more happy and innocent.

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