In 2023, London-based Mark Grassick was writing songs rooted in his obsessive love of ’90s power pop. His previous band had broken up almost a decade before. Clearly, he was onto something with the new material, but it took a chance email to Andrew Taylor (Dropkick, The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness) for it to come to life. Taylor came on board as producer and engineer, but also as provider of guitar, drums, and keys parts, as well as backing vocals. Grassick’s former bandmate Michael Wood joined on bass, and there you had it: Space Jaguar went from an idea to an actual musical project.

The result is ten concise pieces of heartrending, bittersweet, and hooky jangly power pop that, yes, sounds very much inspired by bands like Teenage Fanclub, Gin Blossoms, and Fountains of Wayne, and slides in well with current bands like those of Andrew Taylor as well as Hurry, whose frontman Matt Scottoline sings on Please Come Around—what could have been a college radio hit three decades ago. If You Play Expect To Pay also features cameos from Mike Connell (The Connells), Josh Salter (Nap Eyes, Laughing), and Matt Ashton (The Leaf Library).

Please Come Around is not the only highlight. Like professional architects, Grassick and friends carefully built their songs from the ground up, and when they take you on the tour of the finished structure, they don’t need to point out the nice parts. It’s all pretty self-explanatory.

Grassick wanted to recall the power pop spirit of 1993, and with If You Play Expect To Pay he found exactly what he was aiming for. It’s out now on streaming services, the CDr is up for pre-order now at Subjangle Records and will ship by the end of Summer.

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