Josh & the Jamtones latest succeeds despite its weak premise

Rocksteady, the latest release by Josh & the Jamtones is an energetic, happy mash up of ska, rock and pop that kids will love. If you listen to Sirius XM or visit Chuck E. Cheese you’ve heard their music for sure.  However, when I first heard the CD I couldn’t stand it. Many listens later I’ve learned to like it while our kids really like the music, let me explain what made us change our mind.

The song lineup in Rocksteady plays like a faux radio station. Sometimes this shtick works well and is very effective like it did in Songs For the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age. For adults though, the radio station bits will get very old, very quick. It’s enough to make you fast forward through it to the next song.

Once the adults get past that, you’ve got a nice, up-tempo and non-traditional kindie selection of songs.

I’m also not one for ska and the first couple times I heard Rocksteady all I heard was the ska. However, now that I’ve heard it a couple of times I hear the horn section in most of the songs, but I like it. It’s not to say that I’m all 24/7 ska now, but just because a song has horns doesn’t mean that it’s ska.

For us the real turning point of acceptance was when I heard one of the songs at Chuck E. Cheese. ‘That’s a catchy song, I really like that’, I thought to myself. I looked at the bank of television screens to see what was playing and it was Tailfeather by Josh and the Jamtones. The crowd in the video was having a blast, the kids at the pizza place were bopping around and I suddenly had a tap in my toe.

From there I started listening to the release in small increments and really started to like it. There are a couple stand out tracks on Rocksteady like Tailfeather, a concise power-pop song that is a great example of the harmonies and all age content that make kindie great for the entire family.

Race U and I Heart Ur Face are also good examples of what makes the release work. They are upbeat ska songs with a wink & a nod to the 80’s. The cover says that there are 19 songs which sounds like a massive number, but just under half of them are the radio bits that initially put us off.

Rocksteady is a release that succeeds in spite of itself. The concept aspect of it falls flat, even our kids didn’t like it, but the music is fun and keeps them active and happy.  It also lets audiences understand how their live reputation as a band that leaves nothing on the stage was earned. They’ve shared space with children’s powerhouse acts like The Wiggles and Yo Gabba Gabba, based on their energy and mojo it’s easy to see why.