Jack - End Of The Way Its Always Been

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 12 / 4 / 2002

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Review

Jack have been quiet in recent years. Their last album 'The Jazz Age' came out in 1998, and their last gig was in the summer of 1999 in which frontman Anthony Reynolds opened the set with a song that he wrote for Marianne Faithfull to cover. She eventually didn't. Anthony has now relocated back to his native Wales from London. The other main point to state is that Jack are no longer the band we know and love. Gone from the line-up are George, Paddy, Richard and Colin and in their place are the group's songwriters Anthony and Matthew Scott plus various session musicians. Jack let us preview some of the demos and work in progress on this record on 'La Belle et La Discotheque', a Spanish import, from a few years back, but only two of the songs from that have made it onto this new album. Jack have now moved on into the new century, but I'm not sure if the super hip 'Jack crowd', who are part of the in cool crowd will embrace this record. 'The End of the Way It's Always Been' is definitely fresh and forward thinking. The first two tracks, the title track and 'the Emperor of New London' are very literature based, but don't feature Anthony's vocal apart from as samples. Anthony doesn't actually start singing until the third track, 'With You I'm Nothing'. There is a lot of sampling, loops and drum programming on this record, but it is done with so much grace and style we can forgive them for their absence from our lives. Whereas before Jack were pretty much drums, vocals, violins, guitar, bass and were keyboard based, here they are experimenting with orchestral sounding grooves that have been recorded within a tight budget. It has a very rocking sound, but, despite being electronics based, doesn't go down any post rock avenues at all. The songs check in from between four and ten minutes and embrace Anthony's golden tales of love and loss. As a storyteller, he has matured very gracefully. Gone now are the tales of alcohol leaded London night and Scott Walkerisms and in their place he embraces the culture of art. Matthew's killer guitar licks also have an important effect on the sound. It's great to have them back and in such great form. Welcome back !

Track Listing:-

1 The End of the Way It's Always Been
2 The Emperor of New London
3 With You I'm Nothing
4 Disco Cafe Society
5 That's the Way We Make It
6 Maybe My Love Doesn't Answer Anything in You Anymo
7 Sleepin' Makes Me Thirsty
8 Sometimes
9 No North Left