weChameleon | JESSE MALIN & THE ST. MARKS SOCIAL

<< JESSE MALIN & THE ST. MARKS SOCIAL – LOVE IT TO LIFE | SLASH - SLASH >>

Release date: April 27, 2010
Label: SideOneDummy – Rude Records
Producer: Ted Hutt

Style: Rock, Punk
Related bands: Bruce Springsteen, The Gaslight Anthem, John Mellencamp, The Clash, D Generation, Ryan Adams, Butch Walker

[voto: 3.5]

Intro:
This is the debut album for the St. Marks Social led by Jesse Malin who, after a ten-year solo career, is the leader of a band once again.

Best Tracks:
Burn The Bridge, Revelations, Burning The Bowery, All The Way From Moscow

Notes:
Jesse Malin, though criminally underrated from the general public, is very appreciated by a number of well-known colleagues like Lucinda Williams, Ryan Adams or Bruce Springsteen (thanks to him and to "Broken Radio" from "Glitter In The Gutter" for letting me know about him in 2007).

In this new adventure, we find Jesse with a regular band but his nasal voice and his typical way to sing, sometimes graceless and some others gently low, are so distinctive that one might recall his name when listening to any project with Jesse Malin singing.

Anyway, comparing "Love It To Life" to the last records, the main difference I have noticed are guitars, they are more distorted, dirty, sometimes punk (listen to the anthems "Burning The Bowery" and "Burn The Bridge") and with a few brit influence, while folk and acoustic guitars are relegated to a handful of songs (ie: "The Archer" and "Revelations"). Speaking about melodies, they are typical of this 42-year-old New Yorker, the songs are filled of nocturnal urban moods (I think to the Clash oriented "Disco Ghetto"), they're often gloomy and with a "loser" feeling but never totally desperate.

This is not Jesse Malin's best album but his songs are always successful in catching me and getting inside, and even this new album does not disappoint my expectations.

Band