Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The, erm, fifth coming..., 21 Nov 2001
By A Customer
Chances are, if you're reading this, you've heard the previous JJ albums, and are wondering how this latest offering stacks up against them before you part with your hard-earnt. And it should come as no surprise that this album is like none of the others. But hang on a minute - this one really is different.The Jones trademarks are all still there; Edwards strained, drawn-out vocals together with the passing nods and references to music trends past and present. What is a surprise is that samplers, blips and bleeps appear to have been kept to a minimum. There's a strong guitar presence here - more discernible and purer than on any of the previous four albums. Instead of drowning the music, the electronic bells and whistles are used to punctuate it instead. And to be honest, "London" sounds a lot better for it. The overall pace is slightly slower and less energetic than what's gone before; there's certainly nothing to equal the frenzied crescendos of "Idiot Stare" or "Motion". The delivery is more measured and considered, although tracks like "Message", "Stranger", "Half up the hill" and "Going Nowhere" do give the listener and sub-woofer something to thrash around to. What's more surprising is how good the quieter tracks are. It's hard to believe the outstanding "Asleep on the motorway" comes from the same group who recorded "Liquidizer", while a catchy haunting chorus that perpetuates through the "A Team" does grow on you. "In the face of all of this" is also well performed. These tracks demonstrate that JJ are perfectly competent enough to carry a song without dressing it up in sampler overkill. "London" is a logical progression from "Already", stripping away more of the electronics and providing a welcome return to the fundamentals of guitar-based rock. The overall impression is a more grown-up sound, less processed, less fussy and less clinical (the sign of more freedom within the new record deal perhaps?). As such, it's probably JJs most accessible album to date. If you're a fan, I've no hesitation in recommending it; if you're not, and have stumbled on this review by accident, you could do a lot worse than buying this - there's something for everyone here. Although JJ aren't really pushing the boundaries anymore (i.e. "Perverse") the stuff on this CD is a lot more interesting than most on the current chart. And then prepare to be mystified why this band, with over ten years on the clock, aren't more prominent in their native UK than they are.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
STRIPPED DOWN FOR A CAPITAL SOUND, 8 Jan 2002
By A Customer
Cars and travelling seem to dominate this latest offering from Mike Edwards and the boys, the sound is more stripped down than ever before, tracks like Message and Half Up The Hill seeing Jesus Jones more in Foo Fighters zone. But it's not all cars and ripping guitar based rock, there is time for things more personal in the more sedate The Princess Of My Heart and worldly comments on In The Face Of All This. One track that sounds like a possible single is the quirky Getaway car, including trendy retro vocoder to boot.Possibly the best Jesus Jones recording to date, buy it!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Once upon a time, Jesus Jones meant something.., 29 Jun 2007
Now, 3 albums and one breakup later, it seems bizarre that this groundbreaking band can't even get a deal in the UK, even with With an imminent support slot to The Wonderstuff and a `best of' compilation coming out early next year, this new album on a tiny American label with minimal UK distribution is likely to fall by the wayside, which is a shame given their once groundbreaking output.
Maybe that's EMI's fault: Their last album (in 1997) charted at 113, the one before it (1993) at no. 9, and the one before that (1991) entered at no.1. How times changed in the aftermath of britpop.
Now the band's recamped to the US and got an new album out in the US only, the bizarrely titled "London". Whereas previously Jesus Jones were a shambling barrage of techno and noise attitude, now by comparison, we have a streamlined stadium rock band.
Stylistically, this is looking forward, but still oddly stuck in reverse. Taking most of its' cues from the last album "Already", it's a clean, radio friendly and oddly safe piece of rock electronica, despite whatever the opening anthemic "Message" might indicate ; which owes more to their cover of Gary Numans' "We are so fragile" (in an AC/DC style) than anything else. "Stranger" while also catchy, is again, cut from the same template. Its as if the band got stuck in a regressive timewarp: while 1993's "Perverse" is still a spiralling, futuristic techno-rock masterpiece (laying the grounds for the fusion of guitars and keyboards that was later ripped off by Fear Factory "Demanuacture"), this is nothing more than treading water, another backwards step.
The best thing to say about this is its' a Jesus Jones album. And also, that's the worst thing to say about it; Mike Edward's vocal dominates this record, his instantly recognisable vocals also steadfastly securing this band in the early 90's which the band will never escape in the eyes of the public. Times have moved on, Times
have changed : and Jesus Jones have not.
A few new rejigged sub-drum n' bass drumbeats, a sub-audible smooth bassline and some Indian tabla scales do not a radical reinvention make. They just make a different coat of paint on the same beast; no matter how well disguised. If you're a Jesus Jones fan, you've been waiting for this record eagerly for years, but if you're not it'll pass you by, and you won't really have missed a lifechanging record, unfortunately.
For a band with such great potential to churn out such startingly average product is but one of the most disappointing things a fan can ever see.
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