Jackrabbit San Fermin

Being unfamiliar with San Fermin allowed me to go into Jackrabbit without expectations, and I came away pleasantly surprised. Masterminded by composer Ludwig-Leone, the album draws influences from a variety of genres, shifting stylistically and dynamically throughout, helped even further by two soulful vocalists.

As enjoyable as it is, I find Jackrabbit to be a somewhat irregular experience. Whilst it’s carefully constructed, flowing beautifully from beginning to end, the album in its entirety can feel slightly taxing due to the bloated, overstuffed nature of the songwriting. The stronger tracks are those that don’t overcomplicate, and instead avoid the enticement of cramming in as many compositional techniques as seemingly possible.

Still, there’s a lot to love here, and the high points of the album demonstrate to me that there is a potential masterpiece brewing inside the mind of Ludwig-Leone. For the time being we have Jackrabbit; a well thought-out release that I’ll certainly be revisiting for its gorgeous blend of folk, electronic, and classical music.

This was my first time listening to San Fermin, and it was a very pleasant introduction. I always appreciate it when an artist makes a concerted effort to craft an album, rather than a collection of unrelated songs, and such an approach shines through in Jackrabbit. It’s smart, sophisticated pop with a sincere heart, and that makes for an extremely listenable experience from start to finish.

That said, enough of the tracks are mediocre to dampen the album’s overall quality. Sandwiched amongst the thoroughly lovely highs of tracks like “Emily”, “Astronaut”, and “Billy Bibbit” there are some very forgettable efforts. It may well just be a matter of taste, but the more I listened the more bloated it seemed. Jackrabbit is a fine album, but there’s an even better one lurking beneath its surface, and that’s a shame.

Having listened to their first album, I was hoping for big things from this new release. As a band, the variety is there, with the instrumentation spanning a huge range and taking very clear influences from folk, electronic and classical genres. The horn section is, to my delight, given a big place in the album as it was in their debut and I feel the synths and other electronic instruments were given more of an airing here too.

However, while there are some great tracks here, I find it hard not to make comparisons with the debut and I don’t feel this tops it. It’s a great album though and I will no doubt return to it as a whole, not just for a few tracks.