Review Summary: A very good alternative/progressive rock album which offers a fresh spin on a sound that has already been done to death.
Hailing from PLANET PARALLEL 5, Jacqui L is an alien-scorpion with eyes on her tail who plays an interesting blend of Tool-lite alternative rock. No, you did not read that incorrectly, although you would be forgiven for doubting some of the details. Rightfully so, as Jacqui actually hails from Sydney, Australia and is, presumably, significantly less scorpion-like in appearance than her biography suggests. She does, however, indulge in music that vaguely resembles other Tool enthusiasts such as The Butterfly Effect, Rishloo, and Fair to Midland.
This is not immediately apparent from the opener “Happy Birthday”, which introduces Jacqui L’s voice through a number of simultaneous vocal harmonies. However, “Frankenstein” soon drops in with a wonderful groove and presents a few key elements of Jacqui L’s unique sound, which is rather theatrical. Throughout the album Jacqui utilises a formula of loud in the verses, soft in the choruses and “Frankenstein” is no different. This technique gives the song a mystical atmosphere, never really exploding into a crescendo or climax. Lyrically, though, the song and album as a whole could be better, with the hook of “scared to put all my eggs in your basket again” coming across as awkward and a bit silly-sounding.
These lyrical issues are further exposed on “Rich Man”, which as a whole fails to live up to the previous effort. However, the album is full of other highlights including first single “I’ll Covet” (which unexpectedly turns unexpectedly heavy and concludes with a guitar solo), “Decaying Orbit” (boasting a monster main riff) and “Under the Noise” (which is just… well, good). As a whole, there are few moments on the record which could be considered to be genuinely weak, as everything flows together well and there is a sense of uniformity throughout. The atmosphere is generally quite engaging and Jacqui’s quirky style always keeps the record interesting, even when the songwriting may not be quite up to standard. It also has to be said that there are not many other artists who can claim to utilise the alt-rock genre in the same way Jacqui L does on
PLANET PARALLEL 5. In other words, this is a pretty unique record that should appeal to anyone looking to explore something new and different.
However, a few noticeable flaws are present and these hold the record back from being something truly special. A lot of the lyrics can sound a bit direct, and the music often serves to highlight these in such a way that only emphasises their flaws. The performance of the backing band also seems somewhat simplistic at times, as they never really break loose and instead just mostly serve to give focus to Jacqui’s vocals. For example, the mostly instrumental “Cold” doesn’t serve much purpose beyond providing a welcome break from the vocal-heavy top half of the album. It would have been nice to hear the band be a little more adventurous at times but they do a decent job as it stands.
On the whole,
PLANET PARALLEL 5 is a very good alternative/progressive rock album which offers a fresh spin on a sound that has already been done to death by numerous other acts. While it may not be perfect, there is more than enough potential here to suggest that Jacqui L could release better albums a little way down the line and that is a possibility that should excite anyone who gives this album a listen.
