I’ve never owned a Jellyfish album and, to my knowledge, have never even listened to one in passing. And now, listening to the first single from The Lickerish Quartet – which is 3 members of Jellyfish (Roger Manning Jr, Tim Smith, Eric Dover) – I realize how stupid I’ve been as, even back in the mid-90s, this wonderfully melodic pop sound is something I’ve always been drawn to even if my preferred genres changed over time. It’s pretty easy to say nothing more than “a mix of the Beatles, ELO and Cheap Trick” when describing this track – if I read that description, I’d click a link in record time. I’ve always been a fan of bands like Redd Kross, Enuff Z’Nuff and the Posies and while “Lighthouse Spaceship” won’t be confused for songs by any of those band (or will it?), I’d happy toss this into a “Power Pop” Spotify playlist (in fact, I think I’ll start that playlist now so that I can continue to add when I run across other cool tracks).
What I’ve learned by listening to this song on repeat for the last 20 minutes is that it’s time to go back and dig into the short Jellyfish catalog because I imagine I’ll hear a lot of music that I really dig.