Among the underground indie circles of the USA is where the legend of Jay Reatard originates. Some people say he's a genius in the vein of Mike Patton for garage rock, some call him crazy with his live shows (and sometimes lack thereof).

Keeping this in mind I decided to give Watch Me Fall a spin on my speakers and I was expecting [by judging a book by it's cover] some lo-fi punk band singer in the style of Minor Threat, Black Flag or similar band. What I actually got was something completely different! A more melodic and quite catchy [as much as Jay would probably hate me saying this] bunch of tracks than I was expecting. I could see songs such as the opening track 'It Ain't Gonna Save Me' being played as incidental music during 'The Inbetweeners' for example.

The music itself is very [as Jay describes it] 'twee' (so the late Stephen Wells would have HATED it I guess!) and compared to his previous work, 'Watch me Fall' will probably be one of Jay Reatard's body of works that most people will be VERY divided by.

Personally for me this is actually quite a "cheery" album [despite the depression and boredom in the lyrics] and is actually one of those records you do find yourself getting lost in due to the aparrent simplicity and shortness of it all (only 32 mins long).

"Watch Me Fall" is a very good 'mainstream' debut album for Jay Reatard and it shall be very interesting to see Jay doing these songs at double or triple speed at his gigs!