{"id":2081,"date":"2015-06-05T19:17:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T18:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=2081"},"modified":"2011-05-31T23:37:42","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T23:37:42","slug":"what-would-jesus-drive-%e2%80%93-black-and-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/what-would-jesus-drive-%e2%80%93-black-and-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"What Would Jesus Drive \u2013 Black and Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

(album, Eye See Sound)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some great albums float pleasantly out of the speakers like a summer zephyr, alighting upon the ear in an agreeable manner, others ooze out; creating a cumulative effect that results in an experience that begins with toe-tapping and ends in an uninhibited frug. Black and Blue <\/em>simply detonates<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the olden days (when a man was a man, a punk was a punk, and Brian James was in the Damned), Black and Blue <\/em>would have been one of those albums that got positively strip-mined for singles by an avaricious record company. As it\u2019s becoming increasingly hard to actually buy a single these days, and the Jesuses don\u2019t have an avaricious label, that\u2019s not going to happen here. All of which does nothing to alter the fact that this is a disc packed full of tracks that stand up on their own, then hurl themselves around your parlour, before heading off to the kitchen in search of a bottle of merlot.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the best way to describe the What Would Jesus Do sound is to call it a genuine gestalt<\/em>. The use of such Germanic terminology is entirely apposite, especially given that some of the sounds John and Gemma coax from various electronic widgets can be viewed as part of a lineage that can be traced back through the likes of Del Dettmar, to the Krautrock titans such as Cluster and Harmonia. This synthesized wizardry ranges from fragile evocations of damaged tenderness, all the way up to effects that basically sound like God beatboxing. Atop this cybertronic maelstrom sits Amy\u2019s tectonic layer of elephantine bass and Tim\u2019s powerhouse guitar, which provide melody and coruscating attack in equal measure. Then you have the vocals, a mixture of affecting solo contributions, sparky interplays, and spine-tingling harmonies, which deliver lyrics that evoke the psycho-geography of modern living and the minefield of sexual politics and are evocative to the point of ultra high definition.<\/p>\n

After a thin slice of contemporary musique concrete<\/em>, Black and Blue <\/em>thunders forth with its eponymous opener; part of a triple whammy than kicks off the disc with a boot the size of the Ritz. A visceral v\u00e9rit\u00e9<\/em>, \u2018Black and Blue\u2019 explores the bruised topography of our pint-and-a-fight culture amid bursts of pulsing effects, churning guitars as Tim and Amy lock together and pull apart simultaneously, delivering dual vocals that define the landscape of a small town Saturday night. All jet stream guitar, booming bass and catchy hooks, \u2018Your Awful Kids\u2019 occupies the same territory, deconstructing today\u2019s Kyle Kulture with prescience and wit. The quartet\u2019s titanic \u2018The Girls Are In Charge\u2019 completes the opening triptych of modern living, emerging as a witty and evocative exploration of sexual politics that extends the line of Gang of Four\/Au Pairs post-punk observation and garnishes the whole domestic battlefield with fearsome bursts of sonics.<\/p>\n

The driving soundclash of \u2018Boomtown Twats\u2019 (\u2018It\u2019s about twats!\u2019) provides another high street shop window for the vocal duo\u2019s meticulously observed lyrical barbs, before Amy\u2019s plaintive delivery ushers in \u2018The Leccy\u2019. A modern day dystopian classic, the track sees the band dip way below escape velocity to create a truly captivating number that can be described as the aural equivalent of an Alan Sillitoe rewrite of \u2018The Day My Pad Went Mad\u2019. Although \u2018The Leccy\u2019 sounds like an earthier more grounded version of the Young Marble Giants, the band\u2019s trademark lyrical wit ensures that the song is far more than an exercise in evocative pathos.<\/p>\n

Then, Would Would Jesus Drive take the whole thing one step further. \u2018You Can\u2019t Be Too Careful\u2019 is quite possibly the most prescient evocation of the psychology of modern living yet committed to disc. This is <\/em>the modern world. The song features an internal monologue that Virgina Woolf would have killed for, it renders street life far more real than any number of faux urban grimers, or angry revolutionaries could hope to do. Sirens wail, guitars collide and Brobdingnagian beats are interspersed with gentler sections of pristine beauty.<\/p>\n

Returning to the Germanic theme I shoe-horned into this review earlier, \u2018Transylvania Time\u2019 is the archetypical ohmworm <\/em>\u2013 an unstoppably infectious monster, embellished by some nifty Dr. Phibes keyboards and crowned by a trenchant morning-after reflection upon the twilight lifestyle. This is a track that\u2019ll twist you into the floor, mama.<\/p>\n

\u2018I Think We Rushed Into This\u2019 is another change of pace on an album that demonstrates more range and variety than a very rangy various thing. A recountment of domestic ennui<\/em> and heart-twisting break-up, the lyrics press through dense layers of Wurlitzer jukebox melody as the crystalline harmonies of the verse are eroded by transcendent, stratospheric chorus. Similarly soaring, \u2018Love Is…\u2019 updates \u2018Hanging On The Telephone\u2019 for today\u2019s voicemail crowd. Exposing the isolating aspects of relationships with customary wit, the track is a cybernetic hoedown that \u2013 despite its lyrical content \u2013 apologises to no one, <\/em>bub.<\/p>\n

The claustrophobic and haunting \u2018This Skeleton\u2019 finds WWJD of the heliosheath of their eclectic palate. Driven by an insistent bassline, adorned by Amy\u2019s valedictory vocal, the track sees subtle effects phase in and out as the Banshees collide with Neu! like abandoned Sputniks drifting across an un-looked at sky. Black and Blue<\/em> closes on an exuberant note with \u2018Fragile Mansions\u2019, a testament to making-do that cuts another slice of life from the WWJD loaf. Rendered transcendent by Tim\u2019s dynamite riffola, this is the song that will get optioned to soundtrack everything<\/em> once the band achieve their due status.<\/p>\n

As it stands, What Would Jesus Do face two challenges; to maintain the standard set by what is unequivocally one of the best debut albums of the last decade; and that of reaching the kind of mass audience this music demands. The latter is up to the likes of you \u2013 get the album, kick up a hoo-hah about it, tell your friends … fuck it, tell your enemies. The former, if tracks such as live set opener \u2018Masquerade\u2019 and newie \u2018Hypnotised\u2019 are anything to go by, is no problem.<\/p>\n

Get Black and Blue Direct<\/em>: \u00a0www.whatwouldjesusdrive.co<\/a><\/p>\n

See WWJD and all manner of other great bands: www.eyeseesound.tv<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(album, Eye See Sound) Some great albums float pleasantly out of the speakers like a summer zephyr, alighting upon the ear in an agreeable manner, others ooze out; creating a cumulative effect that results in an experience that begins with toe-tapping and ends in an uninhibited frug. Black and Blue simply detonates. In the olden …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,88,71,92,80,86],"tags":[286,151,287,121,267,285],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garage","category-indie","category-music","category-post-punk","category-punk","category-rock","tag-black-and-blue","tag-dick-porter","tag-eye-see-sound","tag-eyeplug","tag-what-would-jesus-drive","tag-wwjd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2081"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}