Jellybelly + The Obvious
The Twosome Takeover split-CD
(Nervous Records / Barbar Records)

Two melodic punk bands, one quite a veteran, the other is about 2 years old, both from Terengganu; well, in Jellybelly’s case some of the members are now residing in KL. Jellybelly is no longer an item nowadays, some members now concentrating on the harder Inikah Hidup (check out the band’s review here)

There are 11 tunes in this nice pro-CD release, 5 songs by The Obvious and the rest by Jellybelly. Sound-wise this is pretty crispy and clear, both bands took a lot of pains in having this offering palatable to those who’ve had massive aural problems with Terengganu-based recordings.

Okay, lets check out The Obvious first. To brand this band as a punk band, in terms of musical genres, is quite misleading as they featured a lot of melodic indie-rock leanings. What makes the band “punk” (at least for me) is the usage of full power-chords, rudimentary 3-chords arrangements and also driving mid-tempo rhythms on some tunes.

One thing for sure, the vocal melodies sound pretty “pop-melayu-ish” to me, the same with the diction, which is kinda cute in some ways. I’m also reminded of The Undertones’ Feargal Sharkey in some parts, especially on Trouble in Love, the second song in this collection.

As a whole, The Obvious indie-rock and melodic pop-punk fusion is pretty patchy. I kind wish that they would use better melodies, better singing and faster tempos but of course, that’s only my wish.

Compared to Jellybelly though, The Obvious’ vocals is much, much better. Jellybelly’s music is alright, pop-punk with singalong choruses and all that BUT there are two main weaknesses. First, the singing. Very hard to layan as it’s always off the map. Secondly, the melodies sometimes don’t fit the tunes. This is caused by the words in the songs, sometimes it’s too long to fit the melodies! So it sounds all over the place.

Musically, the band played well. There are some nifty ideas, while the songs are alright, with some of them having a lot of potential. The funny thing is, the band sounds best covering Dead Idols’ tune “Countdown”, which goes to say that Jellybelly really needs a lot of work to really stand out.

All in, this CD is alright. I can’t say that I love it although I really want to! One thing sicks to my mind though, while the Terengganu bands have solved the “production” problems, they still need to tighten the performance part and also the songs lah.

Nervous Records & Jellybelly c/o Nizang, 49, Jalan Rahim Kajai, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail 60000 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA – Nervous email РNervous on Myspace

Barbar Records, No. 1 Taman Sutera 2, Jalan Mohammed Salleh 87008 WP Labuan, MALAYSIA – Barbar email

The Obvious c/o Duang, 2349-A, Kg. Sungai Derhaka 21100 Kuala Terengganu, MALAYSIA – Obvious email