Following ten years as the leader of Felt, Lawrence (last name Hayward, but going by only his first name) went on to form Denim, which was then followed by Go-Kart Mozart, whose second album Tearing Up The Album Chart, was released in 2005. Many years after its release, Lawrence said that the album was really just a collection of demos from a rough period in his life dealing with drug addiction and mental health issues, and said he wanted to remix and re-record them, which brings us to Tower Block In A Jam Jar from the now renamed band Mozart Estate. With the exception of “At The DDU,” which now has new lyrics and is titled “A Lorra Laughs With Cilla,” and “England & Wales,” which was dropped and replaced with a new version of “Selfish, Lazy & Greedy,” a track that was originally on Go Kart Mozart’s debut Instant Wigwam and Igloo Mixture, the album is a complete revamping of that earlier release. Following the success of last year's book about him, Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence, he found himself with a whole new set of fans and said “This is an album for people who have never heard Mozart Estate or Go-Kart Mozart before – it’s for people who picked up the book and got into me that way. If you’re one of those then this record will knock your socks off!!” The album kicks off with “Summer Is Here,” which opens with harmonies that are semi-Beach Boys like, although a bit quirkier, then turns into a super chipper summery pop tune full of chirpy keys and “la la la’s.” In a perfect world it would be a summertime hit. “Selfish & Lazy & Greedy” is another super catchy song that sounds like it would’ve fit in with the early eighties pop scene (I can imagine a video for this song blasting all day long on MTV). With lyrics that are primarilly Lawrence running through strange band names from the sixties and seventies, “Fuzzy Duck” has a bit of a pychedelic country sound completed by the noise of a duck quack running through the whole song, and “Electric Roll” is an upbeat pop track with a chorus that strangely reminds me of Elton John. “A Lorra Laughs With Cilla” starts off like a lost T Rex gem, exploding with glam guitars and handclaps before adding some chirpy keys about halfway through and then slowing to a close. The gorgeous “Glorious Chorus” is midtempo pop with an emotional vocal performance and choral backing vocals with some Supertramp-like piano, and “Donna and the Dope Fiends” is more bouncy pop but juxtaposed with lyrics about scoring drugs. The upbeat, synth driven rock of “Delta Echo Echo Beta Alpha Neon Kettle” changes things up with a sound that is a bit reminiscent of The Cars, but with a touch of Lou Reed, as does “Transgressions” a short blast of manic electropop. The extremely quirky “On A Building Site” is apparently considered by many to be too much of a novelty track, but to me sounds more like it would be the perfect singalong from an off-the-wall children’s show (I can imagine them popping up performing this on Yo Gabba Gabba if it was still in production). Although initially coming across as straight-ahead seventies melodic punk they add some strings and keys towards the end of “Listening to Marmalade” to give it a little more texture, and “City Centre” closes things out perfectly with some non-stop, raucous seventies pop glam with a modern-day rock edge. Tower Block In A Jam Jar is nothing but wall to wall earworms, any one of which you might find stuck in your head after a listen or two.
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