At one point in the not-too-distant past, rockabilly was the
\nflavor of the month. Artists like Shakin’ Stevens and the Stray
\nCats were pompadouring their way onto the radio with hits that
\nsounded like they were carved right out of the mid-’50s. Nowadays,
\nthe Stray Cats have long left the alley, Carl Perkins has passed
\non, and even such stalwarts as the Paladins one hardly ever hears
\nabout anymore.<\/p>\n
So, into the void comes Kim Lenz and her Jaguars. With their
\nbare-bones sound and subject matter sounding like something from
\nHappy Days<\/i>, their self-titled debut album is pleasant enough
\nto listen to, but sometimes, one wishes for a little bit of the
\nmodern splash of technology to wake up the sound.<\/p>\n
(Just a side note: Isn’t it ironic that a band whose main goal
\nis to promote the sound of rock’s earliest days is hip to
\ntechnology by having their own Web page? I found that kind of
\namusing.)<\/p>\n
While Lenz might be the focus of the group because of her
\nvocals, the fact is that this is a band in the truest sense of the
\nword. Mike Lester gets ample opportunity to strut his stuff as lead
\nguitarist, while Jake Erwin (on acoustic bass) and Robert Hamilton
\n(drums) definitely capture the feel of the ’50s with their
\npared-down sound.<\/p>\n
Trouble is, I often wished that a little splash of digital
\ntechnology had been thrown into the mix to bring the instruments’
\ntrue sound out into the open. Let’s hear more of the thundering
\nplucking of the stand-up bass, let’s hear both Lenz’s and Lester’s
\nguitars really sing out. The disc was recorded live to a one-track
\nrecording – and while this might have been staying true to the
\ntechnology available in the ’50s, it wouldn’t have been sacrilege
\nto – oh, I dunno – go to an eight-track recording.<\/p>\n
Be this as it may, Lenz proves herself to be a good songwriter
\nand singer. Tha album’s opener “Saturday Jump” is a quick reminder
\nof how good rockabilly can be. Other tracks like “Ten Cats Down,”
\n“Up To My Old Tricks Again” and “Havin’ A Ball” also stand out on
\nthe disc. Lenz and crew successfully merge tinges of country and
\nold R&B into the mix, creating an album that often is quite
\npleasing to the ears musically.<\/p>\n
But just like much of rockabilly,
\nKim Lenz And Her Jaguars<\/i> is an album that is best broken up
\ninto several listens. I don’t know what it is, but listening to the
\nalbum all the way through (never mind the fact it clocks in at
\nunder 40 minutes) is rather difficult. I don’t think this is the
\nfault of Lenz; maybe it all comes down to personal preference. If
\nyou grew up with this kind of music, then I guess fourteen songs is
\nstill not enough.<\/p>\n
\nKim Lenz And Her Jaguars<\/i> is a pleasant enough disc that
\nstays true to the roots of rockabilly, and is a nice disc for the
\nkids to pick up to hear a modern-day version of rock’s birth
\ncries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6175],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38859","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kim-lenz-the-jaguars","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38859"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38859"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}