Wednesday, 3 September 2008

Review - Jamie’s Elsewhere - Guidebook For Sinners Turned Saints

Jamie’s Elsewhere - Guidebook For Sinners Turned Saints

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7 out of 10

Six guys based in Sacramento, US. They have a familiar style to Pelican or Nothingface crossed with Our Lady Peace, alternate styles of vocals, crunchy guitars that fade to melodic picking and upbeat drums, more fitting to a post-rock genre more than indie-rock.

Their first album I believe, "Guidebook For Sinners Turned Saints", the good production stands out a mile. I don't think that six musicians would be easy to control in a studio environment; it's been pulled off rather well. Their noise is deep, there is quite a lot going on in most songs, after a few listens the depth drags you in, quite refreshing I thought I've not come across much like this since Pelican or Explosions in the Sky.

There has been quite a bit of thought put into this album, the intro song, piano based, breaks down into something NIN would be proud of before launching into large riffs that then break to distorted picking, hell we are only 20 seconds in by this point. It carries on well, a great opening track, it really is. The rest of the album is quite well balanced; some slower songs give way to all out rock with a little taste of digital instrument every now and again, "The Saint The Sword And The Savior " coming to mind. All songs have good melody and they work well. I hold back the metal tag with these guys, it's thrown around today all to easily to describe anything with pronounced shouty vocals, this outfit right now they aren't metal, not for me anyway. It's quite had to place influences there are about twenty bands I could list but the good thing is that none of them stick out in the songs of Jamies Elsewhere.

The album looks well put together. Five tracks on the MySpace, the label seems to be taking care of them production and marketing wise, and why not, they have a good set of musicians and the result is a good album here. And now my war cry, not much new here but they have thought about their songs a lot layers and layers of sound to take in, give them a chance they really do deserve a good listen.

Listen: www.myspace.com/jamieselsewhere

Tracklist:
1. Life Ain’t Easy When You’re A Mythical Creature
2. I Didn’t Mean To Interrupt
3. Late Nights
4. Love Letter Collection
5. The Saint The Sword And The Savior
6. Politics Of Knife Fighting
7. Play Me Something Country
8. That Vicious Vixen With The Beard
9. Sweet Carolina Honey
10. Memories Make Good Company

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