Bleachers review: Self-titled album from Jack Antonoff’s band feels like an experiment gone awry

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. But Joel’s influence is all over that track, namely in Antonoff’s breakneck observations of New York City: “I’m talkin’/ Little jeans, tiny hat/ Evan Smith, tiny sax/ Drama kings, sing it loud/ Drag that s*** all over town.” The “tiny sax” prevails for much of the album. It’s there on “Jesus is Dead” as the frontman watches movies at home while the world rages on outside, and again on the muted dance shuffle of “Me Before You”, which feels oddly like a cast-off from The 1975’s 2022 album Being Funny in a Foreign Language. A few years ago, Antonoff told The Independent that “the best chance you of connecting with other human beings is being honest… don’t tell the story above the brutal one, tell the brutal story”. You hear the dull “bong” of a clock as he whispers: “I am right on… time.” Bleachers occasionally lets Antonoff’s genius shine through, but more often it feels like an experiment gone awry.