Jay Reatard: "You're Gonna Lose"

Fans leery of Jay Reatard’s recent divergence from his garage and punk rock roots might see new single “You’re Gonna Lose” as either an omen of more sugary things to come, or, depending on your proclivity for last year’s surprisingly poppy Matador Singles collection, the very last nail in his coffin. I like Reatard more the more saccharine he gets, and given the recent trend of pop bands disguising themselves as noise rock bands—from Times New Viking to Wavves—this is probably a good career move. But what set Blood Visions (2007) and the myriad subsequent singles apart was that his aesthetic allegiances were at heart closer to proto-indie rock practitioners like Pavement or the Pixies than to oft-cited pop hero Brian Wilson, and the dude seems header closer and closer to that end mark with each buzzed 7” that crosses my turntable.

“You’re Gonna Lose” picks up pretty much where the last Matador Singles record left off. Like the last (and best) two tracks on that ’08 release, the recognizable punk/garage conventions that marked his earlier work have here been dropped completely in favor of clean strumming and a simple vocal hook. At exactly two-minutes, it’s trademark late-Reatard short-and-sweet indie rock, just a quick pop jam that I bet would kill live. Let the hardcore old fans reject this, as they surely will, and treasure their obscure Lost Sounds vinyl; to me, Jay Reatard just keeps getting better.