MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY - JIMMY SWIFT BAND

THE JIMMY SWIFT BAND - WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE...THERE'LL BE A LOT MORE SAID THAN DONE

The JSB, Halifax's jammy electro-rockers, have been moving more and more to the fx dept. of your music collection.  The group's latest sees them jumping wholeheartedly into the electronic world.  Led by keyboardist Aaron Collier into the brave new world, he takes the producer chair and turns up the twiddles and knobs.  The disc features a few new tracks, but also some old JSB favourites reworked and remixed.

 

The result is interesting and different because JSB make pretty concise and tuneful songs normally, so they are coming at the electronic thing with the tunes intact, and as the first priority.   I think they take a much different approach to the electronica because they do come out of the basic band tradition.  The strengths are still here, including Craig Mercer's vocals, a belter in the fine Bono tradition.  The band can rock out like a good Halifax alt-pop act too, so you're always going to get a solid song even remixed.  It's just taking them into unexpected areas, with the core unharmed. 

 

Not everything here works, because it is experimentation.  Some tracks go on too long, and there's some at the end of the disc that are just goofing about, and don't deserve to be here.  They are sullying a decent effort.