Neon Jungle – Welcome to the Jungle

Neon Jungle’s debut is the product of an age of distraction, seemingly inspired by, and a reflection of, our modern interaction with the Internet and our evolving digital world. Tracks on Welcome to the Jungle throb and shudder, skittering from one idea to the next within each bite-sized three-minutes-thirty of electro-pop. There’s everything from EDM to rap, power ballads to dub-step, and it’s all wrapped up in over-produced tracks that seem to wash over you, despite the electric shocks of noise.

Singers Cutkelvin, McCarthy, Plummer and Zdrenka make up Neon Jungle and all share the responsibilities throughout, largely to good effect. Despite the bombastic nature of most of their record, Louder offers them the first chance to step above the production. Its restrained opening verse gives them more room to breathe, while elsewhere, the ensemble gives an effectively sinister performance on title track Welcome to the Jungle.

Lyrically, Welcome to the Jungle deals with some intimate themes, obvious preoccupations of young people finding themselves in a world pulsing with constant informational streams. Can’t Stop the Love contemplates the inherent violence of the world, displayed through the lens of television cameras and online-media. Louder is a track about wanting to lose yourself in all the noise. Some of the tracks, like Sleepless in London, touch on relationships, and probably represent the clumsiest moments of the record, both musically and lyrically.

If some of the tracks feel a little broad and generic, it’s because they are. Neon Jungle’s debut is an album created by a record label. It’s written by almost a dozen different people, and the four members were all hand-picked by the label. It’s fair to say the singers who actually appear on the album didn’t have a much to do with the creative process, all of which leaves Welcome to the Jungle distinctively lacking any personality. The bombastic, scatter-brained quality, sourced from our burgeoning obsession with informational overload, is interesting, but everything is so over-produced, so meticulously planned, that it’s almost lifeless. It’s almost hard to believe, considering how much is otherwise going on.

Welcome to the Jungle isn’t a poor record, but music isn’t much without personality. These girls might do something exciting if they get the chance, but until they get their own creative freedom, Neon Jungle will simply signify another notch in the recording industry’s belt.

Piri Eddy

Welcome to the Jungle was released on 25^thJuly 2014, to order the album visit here.

Watch the video for Braveheart here: