TOLEDO – Jockeys Of Love

Review Score:

A+

The Unprecedented Times –

March 22 / 2023

If I wanted to release an unbiased review of TOLEDO’s music, I should have written this before seeing the band play in Pittsburgh this week. Because in addition to making great music, they also happen to be very humble, lovely people and great performers. I saw on their social media that they’d only sold 12 tickets to their Pittsburgh show. Though I live three and a half hours from the club they would be playing at, I thought an intimate show like this would be fun. I was right. But that’s another story.

I had been on a TOLEDO deep dive months prior after discovering them through their song “L-Train”, a single released ahead of their debut album How It Ends. I fell in love with their entire discography, which includes two EPs released in 2019 and 2021. The second of the two EPs, entitled Jockeys of Love, is a collection of six beautiful indie folk tracks. Sometimes contemplative, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes both, these songs are arranged and mixed to a near flawless degree. 

The opening track is the aptly titled “It’s Alive!” The duo sings of being torn apart and stitched together again by a tumultuous relationship with another person. The language and imagery is masterfully crafted. Pulling one pair of lines from this song as an example would be doing the rest of it an injustice. There isn’t a weak song on the rest of the EP. From “Dog Has Its Day” to “Challenger” to “Sunday Funday”, Jockeys contains some of the band’s best work.

The melodies feel obvious across the whole EP, in the sense that every song just feels right. The music feels cold and welcoming at once. The band’s limited instrumentation is continually expanded on as they demonstrate their ability to create beautiful song after beautiful song. The tracks are sonically consistent from start to finish, with an EP that doesn’t overstay its welcome. TOLEDO has crafted a sound that carries over to their debut album, where it is again used to great effect. That’s a review for another time. For now, do yourself a favor and listen to Jockeys of Love. 

Review Score: A+

Gubb wrote this review. You can’t get mad at Gubb.