Mercury
As ever, the life of a US aficionado of Britpop music
is a hard one; with each passing year, the number former New Musical Express
cover stars with current US record contracts is dwindling…and this year is
certainly no exception. It’s been
an expensive, import-buying year for fans of Prefab Sprout, Rialto, Nik Kershaw,
and, yes, James. Unlike the
band’s previous album, Millionaires,
however, Pleased To Meet You isn’t
necessarily worth the $20.00 that you’ll have to fork out for a copy.
It’s not that the album is so bad; it’s just that its predecessor was
so damned good that virtually any follow-up would be left in its wake.
Some have been declaring Pleased To
Meet You to be the definitive James album, in that it contains wide
stylistic variety, covering the various genres the band’s sound has flirted
with over the years. Sure,
there’s merit to this argument, but it’s also a stylistic mish-mosh; the end
result is arguably the least cohesive work in the band’s discography.
Tracks like “Junkie,” “Getting Away With It (All Messed Up),” and
“Gaudi” stand proudly with the band’s best, but, without some serious
resequencing on the part of the listener, it’s hard to imagine that Pleased To Meet You will receive as much time on the turntable as
the band’s earlier albums.
Legacy,
Volume One: The White Songbook
BEC
Recordings
Like its predecessors, Legacy, Volume One: The
White Songbook, the latest album by Joy Electric, would have you believe
that the keyboard-based pop of the early ‘80’s…as best popularized by the
Human League, Gary Numan, and Depeche Mode (or most anything by Vince
Clarke)…never went away. In fact,
amateurs in the field would be hard pressed to argue with claims that this was
recorded during those halcyon years of electro-pop music.
It wasn’t, of course. This
is a 2001 release, and Joy Electric have been putting out albums similar to this
one for the past few years now. The
key word, however, is “similar,” as opposed to identical. There are plenty
of the bleeps, blips, and bloops that are the trademark of the band’s
sound…but this is arguably a more complex work.
The melodies and harmonies are still there, and, again, the whole
thing’s been recorded using monophonic analog synthesizers, but the songs are
a bit longer, and it feels like a more cohesive work than previous albums. Folks who wish that new wave had never gone away will be
pleased to find out that, as far as Joy Electric’s Ronnie Martin is concerned,
it never did.
Tooth
and Nail/BEC
One has to wonder if Joy Electric had their tongues
placed firmly in cheek when picking the title for this 2-disc, 34-song
anthology; the music the band’s crafted in their career thus far is
top-notch...but it doesn’t sound like anything that’s been popular in, oh,
let’s say close to fifteen years. It’s
painful to think that it’s been a decade and a half since synthpop has had
anything close to a grip on the airwaves, but, face it, it’s true.
Most scholars will tell you that the last gasp was Erasure’s 1988
album, The Innocents.
Joy Electric, however, live in an alternate reality
where Vince Clarke never left Depeche Mode, where Gary Numan and Philip Oakey
are worshipped as gods, and where you can still get away with wearing a Flock of
Seagulls haircut without getting cruelly taunted.
Probably.
Joy
Electric
Robot
Rock
BEC
Recordings
Wow! It's
like taking a trip to the '80's without ever leaving the comfort of your own
decade!
Rykodisc
The more skeptical breed of Joe Jackson fan may spy Live: Afterlife on record store shelves and exclaim, “Crikey! Didn’t our man Joe just offer up a live album through his website from his 2001 tour? And, prior to that, wasn’t there one released through Sony in 2000? And, before that, didn’t he have a 2-disc one back in ’88 when he was still on A&M?” (At the conclusion of this lengthy exclamation, the fans may well need to take a breather.) For better or worse, these facts are all written in stone, so their accuracy is indisputable. To give Jackson credit, he pointedly notes on his website regarding Afterlife that “the thirteen tracks were selected to favour songs, or arrangements of songs, which haven't already been released in live versions”; still, it should also be noted that the only songs not to have appeared in some arrangement on past live albums are those taken from his 2003 album, Volume 4. Honestly, though, who really cares? Joe Jackson’s still putting on consistently strong performances 25 years down from Look Sharp!, and Afterlife is proof; a worthwhile purchase for his fans, it confirms that Jackson is still, even now, the man.
(originally appeared in Amplifier Magazine)
Rainbow Quartz
http://www.thejessicafletchers.com
The promo sticker for What Happened To The? trumpets the fact that the Jessica Fletchers have toured with both the Hives and the Apples In Stereo, but it’s certainly the latter whose musical style is the better match for these Norwegians. Like virtually the entire roster of Rainbow Quartz, the Jessica Fletchers aren’t afraid to wear their ‘60s influences on their sleeve: the Kinks, the Beatles (“[Come On] It’s Only Nine” isn’t too far removed from “Please Please Me”), and the more psychedelic sides from the Nuggets box sets, . Trumpet drives much of “Just Another Fashion Band,” organ steers “Christopher Jensen” and “Sick Of The Action” (which is reminiscent of the Strawberry Alarm Clock!), and, lest you fear the psychedelia isn’t authentic, there’s even sitar on “I Got News” and “Yesteryear.” The only possible complaint about the Jessica Fletchers is that, for all their top-notch reproduction of a bygone era, they really don’t have anything that leaps out as being “the Jessica Fletchers sound.” But, hey, it’s their debut album, so there’s still time.
(originally
appeared in Amplifier Magazine)