Jesse Malin - 'The Heat' (One Little Indian)
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Jesse Malin is an ex-punk rocker, erstwhile Bruce Springsteen collaborator and perhaps most famously, a close personal friend of Ryan Adams, present on this recording - no doubt returning a favour to Jesse for Malin's previous endeavours on Adam's own work; Malin is credited somewhat disconcertingly as 'spiritual advisor' on Adam's 2001 opus 'Gold'.
But with his second solo album, Malin demonstrates that their relationship is, mercifully, far removed from that of, perhaps, Eileen Drewery to Glenn Hoddle. From the Byrds-ian opening bars of 'Mona Lisa', there's no question that 'The Heat' is going to be an unashamedly old-fashioned country-rock record. It's most frequently
indebted to Tom Petty's driving, no-frills Americana ('Scars of Love', 'Arrested', 'Swinging Man') and Neil Young's bittersweet, dewy-eyed nostalgia and pensive lyrical themes ('Silver Manhattan', 'Going Out West').
Strewth, even those lovely Keane boys veer off on a dance-y tangent at the end of their debut album. No such danger on 'The Heat'; every track is located squarely in the realms of the traditional. The air of homage does pervade these 14 tracks - the chorus in 'Scars of Love' even going so far as to reference 'hawks and doves', surely a nod to Young's 1980 LP of the same name.
But Malin's employs a sufficient amount of subtlety, freshness and warmth to these songs that fellow retro-devotees like The Stands, say, could do well to follow. The music may be rooted in the past, but these recordings sound very modern. As a whole it does equal 'Gold', although the mere fact that not every single bleedin' song on 'The Heat' appears to be about Winona Ryder does much to ensure this is the case.
Artists in this article: Jesse Malin
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment