Jesu - Lifeline EP (Hydrahead)
1/5
By: Charlie Potter
I really don't get this thing. Justin K. Broadrick, who did a lot of stuff with Techno Animal and appeared on the revolutionary Napalm Death debut LP Scum (probably about the most punk album, in terms of staying close to its ethos, of all time), now thinks it's a good idea to do this boring, space-euphoria creamy rubbish. Godflesh are bad enough, but to pick out any merit in Lifeline takes such a degree of distanced objectiveness that I am coming out in blisters trying to make a good review out of this, and, and it has Jarboe on one of the tracks, who not only was in one of the best bands ever (Swans), but appeared on one of the best albums of all time (Swans' Soundtracks for the Blind) singing incredible songs like 'Her Mouth is Filled With Honey' and 'Hypogirl'.
Does anyone really want to listen to music this depressingly uplifting? Does anyone want to listen to music made by people who are clearly having some sort of mid life crisis? Other than Grinderman? Though the track with Jarboe has its ups and downs, and is probably the strongest track of the EP with some genuinely nostalgic classic rock hooks, it's still by no means good.
The vocals are quite My Bloody Valentine, the riffs have a similar feel as well, but that's a sound that we are all familiar with and though many bands use it to great effect, it's by no means unusual, and it certainly doesn't work when you just play the same riff for five or six minutes with three or four layers of guitar playing largely the same thing in a very slow, drab and drawn out way.
As little as I have ever been moved by his Godflesh project, I would be absolutely furious with this if I was a Godflesh fan. Godflesh were at least vaguely experimental, yet the only experiment that Jesu seem to undertake is that of how far can a respected musician get away with this boring, amateur sounding, miserable drone?
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