Jim Jones and The Righteous Mind - Super Natural

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 30 / 8 / 2017

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Review

My God, this album is not going to make you want to sit down to a nice, quiet night in with a cup of tea. I feel stickier and sleazier for listening to Jim Jones and The Righteous Mind and that is in the best way possible. The Righteous Mind is the latest offshoot of front/main man Jim Jones, the London garage rock scene stalwart who has previously performed as and with the Jim Jones Revue, Thee Hypnotics and Black Moses. While there is a mild step away from the previous incarnations with Jim Jones at the helm, The Righteous Mind still have the same Stooges/MC5 raw and gritty energy which makes you sweaty by just listening to it. They waste no time getting the party underway with ‘Dream’ which comes crashing in with an early days Kings Of Leon swagger to it. ‘Base Is Loaded’ follows up and does not allow you much time for breath or a trip to the bar. Here we hear the piano cranked up and Jones would appear to have been possessed by some sort of Tom Waits spirit, with a guttural yet alluring howl that would sit nicely among the original blues performers, all whiskey soaked and leaving very little held back. ‘Boiler Yer Blood’ and ‘Aldecide’ crank the sleaze and piano up even more, both coming through as stomping garage anthems, that again hone that Tom Waits spirit but, however, with these songs they couple it with a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club meets Queens of the Stone Age vibe. Particularly on the aforementioned songs, but in essence throughout the whole album every separate instrument feels like it has been stripped down to its barebones and rawest form, then played back at maximum volume to give it that "Oh shit, my speaker is about to die" feel. ‘Heavy Lounge #1’ is also worth seeking out with its shrieking slide guitar audibly recreating the chaos of a heavy night that went a bit beyond too far. The album wraps up nicely with the Rolling Stones-esque ‘Till It’s All Gone’ and the much gentler ‘Everyone But Me’ that would greatly please any fans of Mark Lanegan or Low. For a ten track album ‘Super Natural’ really manages to grab hold of you and remove you from whatever reality you are living in. Jim Jones does a great job of taking you to the edge of the cliff and dangling you off without ever quite letting you go. It is by far one of the best rock and roll albums of 2017.

Track Listing:-

1 Dream
2 Base Is Loaded
3 Something's Gonna Get Its Hands on You
4 No Fool
5 Aldecide
6 Boil Your Blood
7 Shallow Grave
8 Heavy Lounge, Pt. 1
9 Till It's All Gone
10 Everyone but Me