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| Summary: Jesse Malin steps into his own on his third album. Think Ryan Adams with less pretention and more hooks. |
1 of 1 thought this review was well written
‘Glitter in the Gutter’ is the sound of a truly self assured songwriter. Having previously looked to blend the credible with the foot-stompingly catchy (which produced a great debut and a sophomore slump), Jesse Malin threw caution to the wind and said *** that; I’m going to make a pop record. It’s a ‘Born to Run’ for the 21st century where those blue-collar New Jersey fables are traded for the sex, sleaze and glamour of the big apple. Having previously melted hearts (if for some reason you were under the impression that the eighties never ended and in fact continued well into the nineties) as the face of the glam/hard rock act D Generation, Malin surely learnt the value of the driving chorus. A technique which he neglected on previous works but puts to full use on ‘Glitter in the Gutter’ and which best demonstrates his considerable talent as an artist. In a world where hard rock plus singer/songwriters equals a chilling vision of Nickelback, pick-up trucks and six packs of cheap Ale, Malin has managed quite the accomplishment, that being to take what on paper seems the basis of one of the most maligned genres on the music radar and write a brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable modern rock album. It’s not without a little help from his friends however, to paraphrase Ringo Starr. The all star cast of guest spots and appearances would suffice on a Timbaland album; welcome to the ring Ryan Adams, Josh Homme, Jakob Dylan and none other than Bruce Springsteen himself.
What is surprising here is that for an album so centred on the fast and the anthemic arguably the best track veers into ballad country. ‘Broken Radio’ is surely lighters-in-the-air time and it’s where we find The Boss in his usual exceptional form, he even get’s to sing the kind of line you’d expect of him, “Well we never had a lot of cash/But we loved those kids/Some say that she missed the boat/But she just burned the bridge”. It’s a piano laced love song but don’t let that throw you, the song still kicks into gear once he whips out the acoustics and there are even a few strings and some strange noise arrangements as the track continues. The rest are reminiscent of The Replacements, (whom he covers with ‘Bastards of Young’) which for those who don’t know means punk plus pop without a hint of Messieurs Delonge or Armstrong with some hard rock licks thrown in every now and then. Add to that some major label sheen and you’ve basically got it. Choice cuts include ‘In the Modern World’ with its jangly power chord versus and riff laden chorus as well as ‘Black Haired Girl’ which plays on the traditional quiet loud dynamic suggesting he learnt something from the music normal people were listening to in the nineties.
Malin’s grungy nasal vocals and the melodies they hum are forever the centre piece of course, think co-conspirator and ‘best friend’ Ryan Adams with a bit of a cold or mixed with your pick of pop punk singers. Like most records this one is a little top heavy with the best material littering the first 30 minutes but that is so common place it can be forgiven. Lyrically Malin is deceptively talented with the aforementioned ‘In the Modern World’ dressing down a few scene clichés with lines such as “The Indians want back the Bronx/Her kid hides his face in the cereal box/Marylyn wants to break free/But lately it's ice cream and bad TV/To hang on” and his rhymes elsewhere focusing on the stories of party girls and drop-outs with a sinister edge.
What really counts with an album such as this is not the individual components it’s the songs themselves and these are some real catchy fun numbers with a solid volume of meaning, which is all ‘Glitter in the Gutter’ ever tries and to be and all it ever achieves. That’s still pretty good though you know?
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Album Rating: 4
No comments 
Digging: Portishead - Third | | |
Good review. I heard his cover of Bastard of Young and Don't Let Them Take You Down but they didn't really grab me. I might check him out properly.
Digging: Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
| | | Album Rating: 4
There's three songs up there to stream so go for it.
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