Being an amazing live act doesn’t always translate to a full recorded album of entertainment – and there is no denying that Janice Graham Band play some of the most exciting gigs in the country.
Thankfully, their concept album, not only crosses over, but enhances the deserved excitement building around them from early days to the (still) hipster free organic buzz that has precede’s this album’s release. Everyday people’s poetry with horny grooves, ‘It’s Not Me’ is a magical musical mystery tour that travels aurally from sunrise to sunset – trumpets its arrival and grooves straight into a tribal beat. ‘Thirty Pieces Of Silver’ is the rhythm and chants statement of intent into ‘Hacienda’, a horny dance number with a new wave howl of “This is my time” that sums them up.
[Rating:4]
Rocking steady, catchy single ‘No Money Honey’ is an ode from the lives of the 99% of us and a damn fine pop funker to boot. An underlying theme of this music is its ability to conjure up visions of industrial horizons and housing estate lives. The bossa nova northern rap of ‘Love Letters’ is a cross between a stammering valentine and a dream sequence in Shameless.
Janice Graham Band have got a lot on their minds, but this has pleasure for the ears at its heart; politically charged without preaching There’s some dark places woven into this tale, like the trip hop menace of ‘The Whistler’ which sounds like its lurking down a dark alley. But then so does the Ten O Clock News most nights.
Don’t mess with this band, even when they make you dance as much as ‘Front Door’ (lived that experience mate) does. It also elicited a laugh out loud with lyrics I wish I’d sang myself when the bailiffs came; “I have to say I like you’re persistence but that’s no match for my resistance. Ask your sister I can go all night. …Oh if you knock it one more time, I’ll have to do what I did last night to that man who lost his fingers…” Brilliant. The song goes off like a firework display of genre clash sounds that are a trademark of an album that doesn’t run out of ideas.
Under laid with bass lines that veer from chilled to menace with ease and overlaid with a schizophrenic delight of aural sensations there’s no denying the musicianship of Janice Graham Band. They have self-produced such a rich major sound themselves that the force is obviously strong in these ones. Its time Britain cheered the fuck up and celebrated that the recession has inspired some of the youth to be instrumental (literally) in raising their game at being world beaters.
Complex jazzed up arrangements that sound like simple soulful anthems for worried minds, free of pomp and circumstance. Shut your eyes and you can hear the sun go down as it ends. Resourceful through necessity it’s the uncelebrated that are the true excitement of now. This is what all genres / ages / cultures / classes and styles can relate/skank to with this album.
‘There are no fears of ‘It’s Not Me’ failing to live up to the faith and expectation already invested by music fans in Janice Graham Band’s promise. This release is a 3D sounding positive weapon of pure and joyous escapism from living in an era that could be called The Thatcher Empire strikes back. When I heard the DJ spinning them at a gig the other night, I wasn’t the only one shouting along raucously “I Wanna Get Away With Murder” – that’s word of mouth n text, that is.
This Team GB Bold gang of tunes will simultaneously abuse and amuse your senses. If ‘It’s Not Me’ isn’t one of 2012’s Albums Of The Year then this isn’t 2012.
[Rating:4]
