 |
| |
|
| |
Album Review
by SashaS
18-6-2004
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Jesse Malin: a friend of Talent Giver? |
|
Jesse Malin: 'The Heat'
(One Little Indian)
Jesse Malin: a friend of Talent Giver
Our intention was to interview Jesse Malin to explain his new album, ‘The Heat’, but the man got hurt on a trip to Paris and had to rest in the hotel he sings about on this album. Thus, we’ve got some [press release] quotes that put some light on his criterion, methodology, beliefs, dreams and the hellish rest of it!
“The second record should always be different,” Jesse Malin reasons. “Not in some ‘The Strokes are big so let’s make a garage record’ way. But as in making progress while remaining true to the spirit of what you do.”
‘The Heat’, the sophomore disc from Ryan Adams’s best mate [who makes a guest appearance, as well as Pete York] is a sure-footed blast of Americana fused rock mixed with mesmerising glimpses of Beatles-esque melody. Jesse Malin’s self-produced effort is a breathtaking leap on from debut ‘The Fine Art Of Self Destruction’, brimming with all the confidence of a young Springsteen (but without the tight jeans) mixed with early Billy Joel.
“The punk rock type of singer-songwriter is still where it’s at for me. People like (Joe) Strummer and (Mick) Jones [both The Clashinistas), Kurt Cobain or Paul Westerberg. A raw edge with great songs underneath.”
Thus a very educated, informed and witty album with poetry-like lines: “Tonight she’s bleeding/ like a Tennessee Williams’s play” (‘Silver Manhattan’) can’t but move anyone above ‘boy-shags-girl’ level of interest. Then, “‘The Shining’ meets old Spinal Tap’ he observes on ‘Hotel Columbia’, or “… Art but sometimes it’s just sin”, on ‘Swinging Man’. Honouring the Dylan tradition, he doesn’t shirk from addressing the current topics on ‘New World Order’, ‘Block Island’…
‘Scars of Love’ sounds like trophies of losing/heartbreak… All lyrics sound like they are populated with real characters…
“I wanted to get away from my personal struggle. Yet, I still have to put myself inside the character in the song. Otherwise, I can’t sing it.”
Other tracks, such as ‘Mona Lisa’ [lead single], ‘Indian Summer’, ‘God’s Lonely People’, simply add to the scope of the auteur’s largesse. ‘The Heat’ is full of beautifully phrased and equally stunningly phased material.
“There are still songs about pain and loss and failed love like on the first record. I didn’t want to make the same record again and I wanted to create my own niche and show people I’m not one of the generic bunch of singer-songwriters that have emerged during this trend. I play rock music and Rock’n’Roll is a lifestyle, not a fad.”
The style that puts “you right there in a time and a place so you can SMELL it,” as he’s qualified it. Justly.
8/10
SashaS
18-6-2004
Jesse Malin’s album ‘The Heat’ is released 14 June 2004 by One Little Indian
|
|
|
