J Church
One Mississippi
Honest Don’s
Prolific is an understatement when it comes to J Church. They have consistently churned out their trademark brand of pop-punk for many years now, spreading their songs across a ridiculous amount of singles, albums, and compilation albums of singles with mixed results. When they’re on target, they write a damn fine song. Unfortunately, they haven’t always been on target, resulting in some quantity versus quality grumblings here and there.
It seems they’ve reined things in a bit to good effect. This is the first album of new material in a few years, and they haven’t been quite so single-happy, either. Apparently this has given them greater opportunity to lose some of the chaff, as evidenced by the favorable ratio of memorable winners amongst the twenty-six songs herein. From “Never Happy” to “The Doctor” in particular are eight straight prime examples of J Church classics. “No Jazz,” “New York Times Book Review”, “Quickstep,” the pointed “Rich And Young And Dumb,” and “J Church Sucks” also all deserve special attention for being fine upstanding J Church role models.
Even after all these years, they still sound like J Church – you can identify the vocals, guitar lines, and lyrical patterns a mile away. Even when they try new things they still manage to come out sounding like J Church. Even though Lance is the only original member of the band, they still sound like J Church. And that’s not a bad thing at all. When I pick up a J Church record, this is what I want. Well worth the wait.
Honest Don’s , P.O. Box 192027, San Francisco, CA 94119
