Album Review: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Meat + Bone

It's been a while between drinks for The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. The band's last studio album was Damage in 2004. But a new album has been inevitable since the dynamic trio remastered their catalogue two years ago. The re-releases came on top of a well-received return to the live circuit, including shows at Sydney Festival. And now back in the studio, the band have lost none of the swagger and spark that won this incendiary three-piece all the praise the first time around.

Co-opting the blues to make dirty rock long before The White Stripes and The Black Keys decided to go vintage, The Blues Explosion sound more like bands such as The Hives, bands that give their blues influences a very hard-rock edge. As a result Meat + Bone is a snarling, shuddering garage rock volcano that erupts every time frontman and snake oil salesman Jon Spencer himself steps up to the mic.

There's not a lot of modern-day frontmen who could get away with lines like, “Get your pants off, let your hair down, get your rock'n'roll on”. But part of the mystic of The Blues Explosion has always been you have to be willing to buy what Spencer is selling. He's always been fully aware of the smoke'n'mirrors he's wrapping around these bluesy tracks. Now he's asking you to buy in.

If this album was any less visceral and less fun, the decision would be a lot harder. But even eight years out of a studio isn't enough to diminish the spark that has always been The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.