Anyone still labouring under the daft notion that The Jim Jones Revue are a 50s retro throwback should be finally shot down by this mighty third album
The raw ingredients may be similar to Little Richard’s prime – booming guitar, frenetic piano-pumping, vocals so hopped-up they could make the dead dance – but it’s all delivered at such a frightening level of intensity that they’re more akin to The Birthday Party or Gun Club, or even Motörhead, at their elevated best.
The real game-changer, however, lies with several distinct sonic shifts. Midnight Oceans & The Savage Heart is a trippy ballad swimming from the fish-eyed lens of the late 60s, while bluesy prison song Chain Gang, showcases extraordinary new pianist Henri Herbert, a boogie-woogie master for the ages.
In And Out Of Harm’s Way is equally striking, with a tribal rhythm that starts off all Summertime Blues, then goes somewhere altogether weirder. Bad Seed/Grinderman Jim Sclavunos is at hand again to ramp the tension up to the hilt.
A triumph from top to tail.
