Album Review: The Jim Jones Revue - The Savage Heart

In And Out Of Harm's Way, track six of the new Jim Jones Revue album, The Savage Heart, is one of the best rock songs you'll hear all year. Even if the rest of the album consisted of a four year old playing a recorder, it would still be worth buying this album just for that one song.

Menacing and intense in a way rock'n'roll hardly ever is anymore, In And Out Of Harm's Way uses all the Jim Jones Revue elements in ways that push this song to a thrilling, heart-pounding conclusion. The piano's ghostly chimes and the ghostly backing vocals have an 1850s feel that bleeds into a chaotic mess in the second half. Produced by Jim Sclavunos, this album has definitely taken on a more Grinderman-ish quality than last album, Burning Your House Down's more bluesy influences, though the album starts off with more of the rumble and thump of recontextulised blues from before, and once again the piano is at the forefront, trading riffs with the wails of the electric guitars.

But starting with Chain Gang there's definitely a mood shift. The tone gets dark and the band members really start to let their demons take the reins. While Jim Jones Revue have always known how to inject some much-needed swagger into an old musical form, here they're also throwing a whole serving of danger into the cauldron as well. What's more, some of these songs are going to absolutely shred live, so hopefully it isn't too long before the band are back playing shows here. We'll definitely be down the front for Eagle Eye Ball.