Jil is Lucky

Jil (the man behind the Jiil Is Lucky project), is a 24 year old maverick musician hailing from Paris, who has already wowed his home country with a compelling mixture of bohemian folk, quirky pop and wonky alternative rock. His track The Wanderer (first single from this debut album) was hand-picked to soundtrack a Kenzo TV commercial in France (now showing over here) and ever since then people have been flooding to the unique sounds of this native Parisian. Jil, since his late teens has been busy travelling the world honing his musical stew along the way, his journey has seen him take in many influences, helping to create a unique and constantly shifting sound that simultaneously seduces and perplexes the listener urging them on to discover the next twist. The album opens with the gorgeous folk/Americana/pop of Winter Is Over, a track that opens with a lovely slice of acoustic guitar and a lush vocal croon before adding a big pop middle section and a few nice male/female vocal harmonies before ending with the same simplistic refrain that it opened with. From this lovely little introduction Jil takes us on a rollercoaster ride of genre hopping from the massive horn assisted sing-a-long (ska/surf tinged) 3 minute pop of J.E.S.U.S Said to the jazzy folk funk of When I’m Alone to the quiet introspective intimacy of Don’t Talk via the warm gypsy folk of Judah Loew’s Mistake and instrumental gypsy-punk of Sidi Bel Abbes. There’s so much going on here it’s difficult to pick a favourite track, each spin of the CD reveals another highlight, each of the twelve tracks on here are worthy of mention in their own right from the indie rock of I May Be Late and aforementioned Parisian pop of strings assisted The Wanderer to the frenzied fuzzy finale of Hovering Machine, a bluesy number that ends in a fabulously noisy manner, this album is simply a brilliant, compelling mix and match of genre bending that is just crying out to be heard by the masses. Right now Jil Is Lucky is France’s best kept secret but hopefully if we live in a just world he should soon become a world renowned star.