BLIND JACKSON is a 6-piece from the capital that has found grace and favour with Pete Mitchell of Virgin Radio, having recorded a session for his ‘Razor Cuts’ show. 2004 saw the band release 3 independent singles, including the download only ‘Mess It Up’ that activated positive feedback from W&H last August. That cracking single kicks off their eponymous debut mini-album and I’m pleased to report that it’s not alone in its excellence as BLIND JACKSON is far from being a one-trick pony.
We’ll cover their sound succinctly: old fashioned guitar based R ‘n’ B coated in pop psychedelia. Now I know that’s hardly unprecedented these days with The Coral, The Bees and umpteen others feeding on the same staple diet. Be that as it may, BLIND JACKSON has the added benefit of writing rather splendid tunes that have ‘hit’ stamped all over them in a way that recalls the great noises of Supergrass. The band also shares with Oxford’s finest pop dandies the same playfulness with melody and a heavy reliance on tempo changes to disarm the listener, qualities that if handled well - as they are here - invigorate a band’s music rather than detract from it.
After ‘Mess It Up’ the opening swamp beat of ‘Keep On Running’ rises to a driving tempo and a call and response vocal more recently evoked successfully by the likes of The Zutons. ‘You Done Me Wrong’ sustains the band’s knack for delivering punchy tunes with aplomb: the squelches and squeals of the keyboard providing the light psychedelic side-dish to the main course of meaty R ‘n’ B, a constant feature of the album as a whole. The verse of ‘The Best Of His Healing’ (perhaps the best of an outstanding crop) tangos along to a cracking ‘Sticky Fingers’ era countrified Stones chorus that also hints at a bit of Bolan as the singer intones “like a Jesus Christ”. Oh and it has hand-claps so a bonus hurrah for that.
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The zombie freakshow ska stomp of ‘In The Club’ manages to bring Bowie and (bizarrely) The Beastie Boys into the fray without ever losing sight of the plot. The agitated ‘Stop The Clock’ infiltrates the latest new wave of new wave in the urgent beat of the verse but still revels in its psychedelic oddness by retaining suitably manic overtones; great chorus as well with its cascading rhythmic bass line. Initially last track ‘Don’t Lose Your Mind’ threatens to become OCS but fortunately is too heavy on the rootsy guitar riffs, too spaced in the trippy chorus-line and too disturbed in the inevitable mental breakdown of the outro to allow such worries to take a firm hold. Phew!
In a nutshell this is affable rock/pop that captivates, tantalises and excites in equal measure. On this showing you’d have to be Mr. Magoo to lose sight of BLIND JACKSON.
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