Space Jaguar

The last couple years have proven prolific for UK outfit Space Jaguar. The band’s knocked out two albums and two EPs in just under a year, an admirable feat for any new band. A great deal of that time has been spent chasing a very specific corner of the ‘90s, a niche where power pop found a bit of punch, and seemed just on the edge of complete ascendence. The band’s last album holed up in a shaggier vision of this sound, leaning into the recent worldwide reverence for Gin Blossoms. If You Play Expect To Pay evoked the Tempe janglers if they were less inclined to brood and spend their time shaming unrequited crushes. The Blossoms focus fades away on Command Post, though, letting a fascination with Teenage Fanclub, Sugar, Matthew Sweet, and The Lemonheads huddle under a hankering for Big Star’s biggest years.

Mark Grassick has a knack for big hooks hung on strums and a heart-on-sleeve hummability that’s easy to love. Everything on Command Post feels bigger, brighter; a brilliant hue that reimagines the ‘90s without any of its angst or anger. The crunch that corrodes the edges of songs like “Seasons,” “So Many Things,” or “Unstuck In Static” never gives way to the grit of grunge. SJ are holding the shredded denim of the decade at bay with the kind of hooks that would have held up in teen romances aching for the melancholy that Grassick wields so easily. He doesn’t carve out the sound alone, either, sitting in good company with Andrew Taylor (of Dropkick and The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness) who returns to the producer’s chair with a leaner vision that knocks this immediately to the top of the band’s deepening catalog of releases. It’s been a pretty solid year for power pop, but don’t let this one slip away. It’s just the bittersweet gem to get you through the grind of 2026.

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