Jamies Elsewhere - Guidebook For Sinners Turned Saints (Album)
Old age has clearly stealthed it’s sneaky arse up on me from behind and slit my wrinkly throat, as I’m clearly losing touch with some corners of the musical spectrum in this here modern world. I understand that art needs no explanation, and the world would be a bloody boring pile of crap if we all liked the same thing, but an album such as Guidebook For Sinners Turned Saints has left me struggling.
The music is as tough as a greasy Chiko Roll, the musicianship excellent, and the male vocal quality and range staggering. It’s just that this all seems to have been done to death before. The music’s big and heavy and full of huge guitar parts and layered with tricky bits, but the recording seems so over polished and pristine that the desperation and angst that Jamies Elsewhere seems to want to project, ends up feeling quite squeaky clean. The end production feels like it’s taken the grit and toughness away from the songs and taken away their chance to really impact the listener. I’d like to hear them live, as I think a truer sense of what they’re on about could be sussed. I’m sure they’d go orf Sharon.
The dirtier the better I say, and Guidebook For Sinners Turned Saints could have been wonderfully filth ridden. But hey, I’m just a silly old fart who needs to find his teeth before tea time.
