shop | mailing lists
musicOMH
music: album reviews
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Plastic Fang (Mute)
UK release date: 8 April 2002
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Plastic Fang
buy this title


track listing

1. Sweet'n'sour
2. She said
3. Monkey rock'n'roll
4. Killer wolf
5. Tore up and broke
6. Hold on
7. Down in the beast
8. Shakin' rock'n'roll tonight
9. Midnight creep
10. Over and over
11. Mother Nature
12. Mean heart

The cover of the new Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album has three images on it. One is a sketch of a fearful, wide-eyed woman, another a cartoon picture of a werewolf, while dividing the two is a row of teeth, taken from an old magazine ad for a kids' vampire kit.

The combination of these three and the title of the album, Plastic Fang, capture what the JSBX are all about here, a mix of cheeky childhood humour and comic book grotesquerie is underpinned by real horror. It's all about mixing it up, the band's inimitable sound being a fusion of blues, punk, funk, Elvis-style crooning and good old-fashioned rock'n'roll. In Plastic Fang, we have the fight between the werewolf of rock'n'roll, and Spencer, the silent stranger with the silver bullet, the loner bitten by the lycanthrope and out for revenge. So, does the conflict between man and beast create great things?

Well, not really. The problem is that the rock'n'roll monster is too strong, and the hunter simply never has a chance. Sweet'n'Sour provides a great pulsating opener, but for the most part after that, it's rock 'n' roll, but we don't really like it. The sound is far too aggressive, the guitars grinding and roaring, Spencer howling as the beast takes over his soul. It's sound like they're all having a great time, but for the listener it's all too close to chaotic noise.

The album's highlights undoubtedly are when we see the more vulnerable side of the band. Mother Nature aside, this difference is detectable on the tracks where the band collaborate with guest artists. It's as if, when they have to make music with other people, the band realise that maybe they should tone it down a bit. And that slightly more restrained sound is very much what saves the album.

Elliott Smith adds vocals, plus a definite tenderness, to Tore Up and Broke, while Dr John and Funkadelic's Bernie Worrell jam on the excellent Hold On, arguably the best track on the album.

While die-hard JSBX fans may well love every second of this, for the rest of us Plastic Fang is very much a Jekyll and Hyde experience. But, if you can tolerate that noisy, rampaging Mr Hyde, the time with the more sensitive Jekyll is really rather enjoyable.

  share: 
Facebook | Digg | del.icio.us | more
Mercury Prize 2009 nominees
FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE SPEECH DEBELLE KASABIAN FRIENDLY FIRES
LA ROUX BAT FOR LASHES THE HORRORS GLASVEGAS
SWEET BILLY PILGRIM THE INVISIBLE LISA HANNIGAN LED BIB




out this week:
Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young The Hidden Cameras - Origin: Orphan Weezer - Raditude
Luke Haines - 21st Century Man Espers - III Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
coming soon:
Martha Wainwright - Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, a Paris Robbie Williams - Reality Killed The Video Star Mariah Carey - Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel
Will Young - The Hits Joe Goddard - Harvest Festival The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Higher Than The Stars EP
recent releases:
Cheryl Cole - Three Words McAlmont & Nyman - The Glare Miike Snow - Miike Snow
Devendra Banhart - What Will Be Will Be Kings Of Convenience - Declaration Of Dependence Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg
Portico Quartet - Isla Annie - Don't Stop Whitney Houston - I Look To You
The Antlers - Hospice BEAK> - BEAK> Atlas Sound - Logos
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport The Flaming Lips - Embryonic Shakira - She Wolf
more album reviews
TOP ARTICLES NOW
GIG: Shirley Bassey dazzles Camden

GIG: HEALTH slay 30 minutes

MORE GIG REVIEWS: Maps, Smokey Robinson, Editors, iLiKETRAiNS, Dizzee Rascal, Doves, The Big Pink, Soap&Skin, Girls, Robbie Williams...

ALBUM: Cheryl Cole: 3 Words

FESTIVAL: In The City 2009

INTERVIEW: Miike Snow on deeply darkly danceable music and why cold is good

RELATED ARTICLES
ALBUM:
Blues Explosion - Damage

SINGLE:
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - She Said

GIG:
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion @ Royal Festival Hall, London



  more album reviews...



musicOMH
about us
contact
copyright
home
elsewhere
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
Soundcloud
MySpace
© 1999-2009 OMH