Stolen Jars fits parts into wholes. The songs on Kept, their upcoming album, loop and build until each element feels inseparable from those that surround it. Its orchestration is at once disorienting and complimentary. “Waves,” the album’s opener, loops agile guitar melodies, bass notes sliding underneath to give each iteration an entirely different mood. On the second single, “Kept,” singers Cody Fitzgerald and Molly Grund ebb in and out of phase before coming together for each chorus.
“I’m interested in hocketing—the way two riffs begin to sound together as one,” says Fitzgerald, who wrote the album in the two years following Stolen Jars’ self-titled debut. The process, like the compositions themselves, evolved slowly. Fitzgerald composed and layered parts in his bedroom, tinkering to ensure precision. With Grund, he built vocal melodies around the tracks. The lyrics are as much sonic as they are literary. It’s the sound of words that moves each track along. Once the album was finished, it was mixed by Eli Crews (tUnE-yArDs’ w h o k i l l, Nikki Nak, Deerhoof, WHY?) and mastered by Jeff Lipton (Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, LCD Soundsystem).
Fitzgerald builds off the success of Stolen Jars, released in 2011. “Driving,” off that record, was featured in an iPad commercial, and the band played numerous shows along the Eastern seaboard. On Kept, Fitzgerald worked to expand the fidelity, instrumentation, and scope. It’s a larger, deeply ambitious record.
As Stolen Jars lock in, their sound continues to evolve. Guitarist Greg Nissan, drummer Will Radin, vocalist Elena Juliano, and keyboardist Tristan Rodman render each part whole in a live show that pushes Stolen Jars’ sound to its largest and most energetic. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.