Saturday, January 11, 2014

14 Reviews for 2014: #10, Jesu - Heart Ache/Dethroned (2004 - 2010)

Jesu:  the best, cheeriest kind of slow gloom rock you will find.

Somehow they make the whole experience inviting and comforting.  I'm really not sure how.  It's droning, reverberating, insisting progressive rock at its most natural grimy extension.  I always imagine Jesu as those fat twins on motorcycles that were in the Guiness Book of World Records in the 70's.  (In other words, a reincarnation of Screaming Trees, whose rhythm section was basically the same thing.)

This project (as opposed to 2007's Conqueror or 2009's Opiate Sun) is not a standard "next release":  disc 1 (Heart Ache) represents a long out of print 2004 EP, while disc 2 (Dethroned) was started at the same time but completed in 2010.  Keep in mind:  during that time period, Jesu released 4 full albums and 4 EPs.  That's a considerable amount of music in between the start and the completion of Dethroned, and thus a lot of room for their music to evolve.

Jesu - "Dethroned"

Besides all of that, it's just great music.  It's the musical equivalent of the most romantic pieces of a rainy day:  it's dark, it's threatening, yet it's inexplicably refreshing and uplifting.  

It's a fine place to start listening to Jesu, or the next album of theirs that you should pursue.

CD Placement rating:  Car CD Changer.

- Snilch

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