Ya gotta put things in context. If The Spazzys hadn't made an effervescent pop-punk classic in 2004's "Aloha! Go Bananas", we'd all be praising "Dumb Is Forever" as one of the most righteous and infectious debut albums of 2012. They did and it isn't but it's still a pretty good effort.
Forget critical analysis, I am biased towards this CD, okay there you have it! Hear me out on this one, I'll make no bones about it, Jim Jones body of work has always remained a constant on my compact disc player. I love the guy's music. After all, the singer / songwriter has distilled classic influences (Stones, NY Dolls, Stooges/Pop, 60-70s funk/soul), in the process added his own palette of color and created a body of work that is exciting and rewarding.
If you didn't think they were the genuine deal, "The Savage Heart" puts it beyond doubt. The savagery's one aspect, the swing's the real thing. In nine songs, The Jim Jones Revue unleashes energy to fuel a thousand lights.
You couldn't be in a band with Ian Rilen without a lot of the incorrigible bugger rubbing off and so it is with Kim Volkman's second solo album, "Setting Sun." Ex-Love Addict and post-Rilen X member he may be, but Volkman charts his own course through the seamy underbelly of Melbourne's gutter-level blues rock scene and the result is pretty damn satisfying.
Danish bedroom musician Sebastian T.W. Kristiansen is the voice, guitar and keyboardist behind this debut, 14-track album on Denmark's always compelling Bad Afro label.
Bubblegum gets a bad rap. The name infers something sweet and insubstantial that loses its taste after a short time and gets spat out. If you agree, adjust your biases, wind your body clock back to 1966 and lap up The Setting Son, a fully-realised retro treasure from Denmark.
