A little while ago, Brooklyn dreampop sweethearts Gingerlys announced that they were getting some well-deserved international love in the form of a Japanese reissue of their Jumprope EP on 2670 Records, which would include two previously unreleased tracks. For the last two months the only way to hear these songs was to fly to Japan and buy the vinyl, but as considerate and congenial as Gingerlys are, they are releasing them to the general internet.
The first, “Afterglow”, was recorded during the Jumprope sessions, and it’s delightful as every other song on the EP. The second, “Corduroy Star”, is the band’s first recording featuring “new” vocalist Jackie Mendoza, an introduction for anyone unable to have seen any of their 30+ performances in the last year. Synth-heavy, yet floating on air, the song bops along in a game of planetary hopscotch, its choral guitar and light wah creating a simultaneously serene and trippy stellar mural across which the supremely buoyant rhythm section makes its spaceman footfalls. Mendoza’s hushed crooning acts as the comforting side of the universe, the one you find yourself warmly thanking when you find your cat who’s been missing for five days, giving and getting the most important cuddles of your life. It’s mildly melancholy, but in a way that’s reassuring, that insists sadness is essential for the contrast, however slight, of inevitable good.
