Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Cracker, Jackie, 23 Aug 2008
The most criminally overlooked talent in popular music delivers a new album full of surprises, even to a seasoned fan, making Lovers At The Gun Club a strong contender for Jackie's best album yet. The title track, drawled by soulmate Johnny Dowd, presents a swaggering man out for kicks before showing him to be violent, screwed up and alienated from family and a past lover. Fareham Confidential is brilliantly observed from the most mundane details of a trip to his local burger truck. Images such as The Innocent Railway's woman remembered in a blue icy halo light up the listener's imagination from start to finish. Even the odd practice of including a song by another artist (the excellent David Childers' appropriate Heart In My Soul) fits here - it's also used as an imagined song from a radio in his late dad's car in a scrapyard run by Johnny Dowd and used as a confessional box.
It's really frustrating that after more than 30 years making music, Jackie still remains a cult without, for example, one appearance on British TV (Jools Holland et al, please rectify!). With folk making a comeback, Jackie's name seems never dropped. But if you're new to this wonderful voice, make Lovers At The Gun Club a teriffic starting point to get to know one of the few genuinely poetic and soulful performers in popular music. You won't regret it.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Guaranteed to make you smile..., 7 Oct 2008
Have to agree 100% with both reviewers here. I was given the CD by a good friend, accompanied by the words, 'I don't get it'. Well, I 'got it' from the first notes, through to the very last. A wistful album from an assured performer, full of inspired observations and layers of thoughtfully applied, multi-instrumentation and sound. It's one of the great pleasures as a music lover, to find something that surprises in both musical and lyrical content. Do not let this opportunity pass you by!!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Seal of approval!, 28 Aug 2008
I've been following Jackie Leven since the 80's and always very much look forward to the next album. This one is excellent as always, and production-wise in a similar vein to the previous one. Of course, it's Jackie's incredibly rich, deep baritone voice that makes the album such a pleasure to listen to, and the songs here are folk/blues tinged acoustic-guitar based, with a celtic lilt in some of the melodies. It's typical Leven, witty, and sometimes ambiguous and thought-provoking poems, burger vans, lovely ballads, hidden depths, multi-layered vocal harmonies and a brief and welcome apprearance from singer Deborah Greenwood. I love Jackie's voice best on the melodic, soulful ballads, and my favourite tracks here are 'My Old Home', 'The Innocent Railway' and 'I've Passed Away From Human Love'. If you like 'Oh What A Blow', you'll like this one.
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