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First, two disclaimers: 1. I have no connection to Jellyfish or any of the folks associated with them - I'm just a fan who discovered their music a few years ago and was astonished that they aren't more widely known 2. I shared this suggestion here ~3 years ago, but so much time has passed, there's a huge number of r/Music subscribers who never would've seen the previous post. I hope someone else discovers Jellyfish all over again!
Wikipedia has the whole story, but here's the TL;DR: Jellyfish formed in San Francisco in 1989, released two albums of gorgeous and intricately-produced music (generally lumped into the "power pop" genre), and broke apart in 1994. There were a few people who cycled through the band during its brief lifetime, but the two principal creative forces driving the group and their sound were Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Andy Sturmer.
Despite being driving by a pair of legitimate creative / musical geniuses, Jellyfish had some absolutely terrible luck, which almost certainly contributed to their lack of commercial success. Two serious problems in particular stand out to me:
- Their 'visual style' heavily borrowed from San Francisco's 1960's hippie culture (on-stage look, album art and music videos), and was just hopelessly dated and silly by the early 1990's. Almost all their videos and live concerts display this style, and it's really at odds with their sound
- Their sound (both recorded and live) was gorgeous, using complex vocal harmonies and intricate multi-layered instrumentation (note the repeated and enchanting use of harpsichord in several of the tracks I link below)... all of which was completely at odds with the rapid swing into the Grunge Era they were musically competing against in the early '90s
Jellyfish only released two full albums (not counting some demo tapes and a few live bootlegs): Bellybutton and Spilt Milk. Both albums are absolutely crammed with tracks that evoke (without entirely ripping off) many familiar artists and bands, ranging from The Beatles, Badfinger, Cheap Trick, Queen, The Beach Boys, etc. - basically any major group that incorporated complex harmonies and arrangements within the rock/pop genres. Put another way: if you like any songs from any of the groups I just listed off, you're almost sure to find at least a couple songs from Jellyfish that you'll adore.
For anyone who isn't already familiar with Jellyfish and their two albums, here are a few selected tracks from each of their albums, with a few personal notes or observations:
Bellybutton (1990):
- The Man I Used To Be - Apparently determined to begin their musical career by being weird (but also beautiful), Jellyfish opens their first album with a dark but catchy exploration of the toll that war (or any parental separation) can take on a family
- That Is Why - Here's a perfect example of one of the problems I noted above: here's an absolutely perfect '90s power pop song, saddled with a silly and dated looking music video. I'm tempted to only link to the song itself without the video, but maybe seeing the video will help clarify why Jellyfish didn't explode in the MTV era the way their music should've demanded
- The King Is Half-Undressed - Amazing song I should have included when I first submitted this list. This is also probably the best music video Jellyfish produced, and it was nominated for a Best Art Direction trophy at the 1991 MTV Music Awards. Thanks to /u/urnfnidiot for pointing out the glaring omission of this track from my list
- She Still Loves Him - Another beautifully-written song exploring a dark topic (physically abusive doomed relationships), with a sound that evokes something Paul McCartney & Wings might've put out
- Baby's Coming Back - Just exquisite power-pop, but with clever lyrics often not found in the genre
Bellybutton showed a young band flexing their creative muscles while also being pretty up-front about their musical influences. While many of the songs on Bellybutton were exceptionally good, the album as a whole didn't feel quite complete. After Bellybutton gained moderate critical acclaim but failed to result in major sales success or significant national recognition, Jellyfish retreated to the recording studio and focused all their creative and technical abilities on their second and final album, Spilt Milk. Instead of shying away from evoking their musical influences, Jellyfish basically doubled-down and set out to create a power-pop magnum opus, complete with wide-ranging lyrical themes, rich sonic tapestries, complex and nuanced instrumentation, and heartbreakingly beautiful vocal harmonies. Here are a few particularly amazing tracks, but really, if you've made it this far in this crazy long post, you should just listen to the whole damn album from start to end.
Spilt Milk (1993):
- Hush - Jellyfish, always determined to buck expectations, opens their second and final album with a sweet harmonized lullaby, effectively setting the stage for the rest of the album both musically (those layered harmonies!) and thematically (it's all a dream, but hold on tight anyway)
- Joining A Fan Club - Rocketing out of the peaceful reassurance of Hush, Joining A Fan Club is a powerful comparison between the youthful longings of a teenaged fan dreaming of her pop idol, and her parental figure feeling similarly enraptured by an exploitative televangelist
- Glutton Of Sympathy - Being lonely sucks, but it sucks less when you can write and sing about it this beautifully
- The Ghost At #1 - This song explores the tragedy of rock gods who only get their much-deserved respect after dying young... recorded by a band for their final album after failing to get their much-deserved recognition while they were still going. There's a bit of irony here
- Bye Bye Bye - A portrait of loves lost, framed with a klezmer song structure and backed by harmonies that would've been right at home in The Beatle's "Eleanor Rigby"
- He's My Best Friend - A weird, sonically complex, funky, insanely catchy ode to the singer's penis - pretty much the prototypical Jellyfish song
Okay, that's it - this is already way longer than I meant it to be when I started writing after dinner tonight! Here's the blog post I randomly stumbled across a couple years ago that brought Jellyfish into my life - I owe that blog post a lot for bringing Jellyfish into my life. I hope someone else enjoyed this post as much as I've enjoyed writing it!
EDIT: Per a suggestion from /u/bamboo-coffee, here are Spotify links to the two Jellyfish albums:
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