Fila Brazillia: Jump Leads : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On Jump Leads, producers Dave McSherry and Steve Cobby's eighth album, the duo hope to lose the "trendy" and "lounge" tags that have followed them. Jump Leads escalates the surging energy infused in their up-tempo and electrifying approach. The record kicks off with a creeping organ that invites you into the chapel, but after about a minute of amazing grace, the instrumental jam-session of grooving bass lines and keyboard strings kick in. The bluesy vocals of Steve Edwards on the lead single, "Spill the Beans," sets the mood for comfortable solitude. Edwards' vocals are synonymous with the mellower cuts such as "We Build Arks" and "Nightfall," the latter, a bizarre dub track that moves into a whole other texture of music, making you question if another song had just begun. From the Latin-flavored productions on "It's a Knockout" to the pushy pace of hectic drumbeats on "Percival Quintaine" and African-chanting on the bouncy "Mother Nature's Spies," their enormous time in the studio was well spent.

MARLON REGIS
(February 22, 2002)