Having already grabbed attention with their debut EP last year, UK outfit Jack The Envious have bigger things in their sights with the release of its successor In Your Own Way. It is a more creatively adventurous affair swiftly revealing a new confidence and bolder exploits from within the band which only increasing experience and expanding imagination can bring.
Formed in 2012 by vocalist Nir Perlman and guitarist Guy Avnon with bassist Guy Checkarov subsequently linking up, all this going on during their military service, London based Jack The Envious took their time honing their sound and live craft as national service absorbed their time. Debut EP, Pull You Down, made a solid impact with its release last year, its post hardcore nurtured sound a potent introduction to the band. Its first steps though have now been strikingly eclipsed by In Your Own Way, the Jack The Envious sound having evolved with those new previously mentioned attributes and a maturity they can only breed. With its line-up completed by drummer James MacPherson, the quartet has moved from being another promising post hardcore proposition into an imagination grabbing and openly distinct incitement looking back on a lagging behind genre crowd.
In Your Own Way opens up with Shut Me Off, intriguing ears and thoughts with its darkly toned atmosphere and pulse veined by a melodic tingle. Soon guitars and rhythms are crowding around the senses though, subsequently uniting in a tenacious and lively stroll blessed with a delicious bass sound and the wiry exploits of the guitar. With Perlman’s vocals equally as distinct and enticing, punk and indie rock lining the track’s post hardcore breeding, it erupts in a magnetically eventful blaze with numerous increasingly gripping twists and turns. The track is superb, quickly stamping a new creative authority and adventure upon the band’s writing and its portrayal.
The pop punk entrance of Begging For More belies the forceful tide of sound in close pursuit and remains an enterprising texture within the mercurial landscape of the song. Fiercely infectious with a matching strength of aggression and imagination, the track is a fascinating tapestry of styles and invention keeping the listener busily captivated before the band’s new single Guilty takes over. Its gentle melancholy scented opening similarly draws a wall of intensity and trespassing sound without losing the poetic integrity within the blossoming heart and guitar weaving scenery of the song. Imposing drama also brews within the song, laying out its temptation as Avnon conjures and rhythms challenge alongside the ever enticing vocals.
Mrs. Grim swings into view on a trapeze of guitar woven tendrils straight after, the track embracing a host of indie, punk, and hardcore spawned flavours in its appetite stoking invention. The most imaginative and creatively bold encounter within the EP it is also one of its most inescapably catchy making, as most songs here, a riveting gateway into the world of Jack The Envious whilst challenging the first as the best song within In Your Own Way.
The EP ends with Never Look Down, the calmest proposition within the release but brewing its own keen to erupt blaze of energy and sonic fire within the song’s melodic hug. Though not quite lighting ears up as those before it, the track is a fine end to quite simply one exciting release. With their first EP Jack The Envious said here we are, with their second they have declared themselves ready to make a leading role in shaping the future of British post hardcore/ melodic punk.
In Your Own Way is out now as a free digital download @ https://jacktheenvious.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/JackTheEnvious/
Pete RingMaster 19/07/2017
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyrigh
It swiftly has ears and body on board with the single Girlfriend, the song a breeze of infectious warmth and electronic buzzing around the captivating voice of Loveland. Guitars bring a steelier fizz to proceedings, that slight edge courting the unbridled pop heart of the encounter. There is little to not eagerly embrace about the song even if, as its companions, it does not quite venture the realms of uniqueness as boldly as it might have. Nevertheless it is a temptation to greedily devour leading keener intrigue into the synth pop funk of Lonely Life. The eighties tinge of the opener is repeated within its successor, the track like a blend of Bananarama and The Ting Tings and again a captivating invitation on its own to take a lick of Ice Cream Anti Social.
The robustly stirring encounter is followed by The Revelation, an even more imposingly catchy enticement body and vocal chords alone fall before in swift time. Co-written with Ben Christo, long-serving guitarist with The Sisters of Mercy, the track roams with a predacious intent, its creative indoctrination built on waves of persistence honed into thought provoking, body twisting primal seduction. With an additional Ministry-esque nagging around glimpses of cinematic theatre, the song is pure devil spawn scheming, Watts the insidious engineer.
Those first moments come courtesy of Stand Up, the track spiralling from an initial sample woven lure with wiry guitar swirling around senses jabbing beats. Straight away instincts for anthemic metal are awoken, vocals a rousing incitement backed by hungry riffs and a brooding bass line which almost dances with an established appetite for its flavours. There is a great Anthrax like tenacity and tone to the track around its chorus but equally a modern crossover essence bringing whiffs of bands such as Suicidal Tendencies and Municipal Waste into play but all spices assimilated in a proposal familiar, new, and distinct to Toxik.
The EP opens with the outstanding Ghost Town, a song swiftly making a successful claim for best moment and most potent lure within Lights. With a great slightly off-kilter indie rock revelry to its punk rock tenacity, the track like a mix of Asylums and The Wildhearts, things are swiftly bold and sweaty as the swinging beats of Josh Woolnough scythe through the nagging riffs and spiky grooves of guitarists Matty Halliwell and Lewis Horsley respectively. The energetic vocals of the former equally inject an energy and fresh identity to the encounter, it all colluding in an adventurous and unpredictable mix driven by the alluringly throbbing groan of Laurence Burkitt’s bassline. In no time body and vocal chords are enlisted by the arousing antics of the song, its dynamic and almost bitchy start the perfect introduction to Reckless Intentions.
Without knowing their influences it is not too difficult to guess the touch of bands like Karnivool and Incubus but similarly that individual character of the White Noise Radio sound is apparent and just as vocal within the equally striking Gone Inside. The wiry riffs of its entrance again make for a richly appetising lure, the guitars and bass seductive and sinister as they continue their invitation whilst subsequent mystique lined grooves flirt alongside before a heavier breath sweeps through it all. As its predecessor, the track twists and turns through a revolving spiral of aggression and intensity, each bringing new textures and drama to easily embrace as the five-piece technically and creatively weave with increasing dexterity.
The outstanding start is quickly and as powerfully backed by No Body; it’s opening electronic glide across industrial textures a blend of M83 and Nine Inch Nails. Soon the impressive tones of guest vocalist Duja, from electro rockers MXD, are captivating, his rich darker presence perfectly united with Mélodie’s fiery presence. Carrying a great eighties essence, the track is as thickly compelling as its predecessor, almost lava-esque in its emotive and energetic heat yet masterly controlled and harmonically elegant within its potent smoulder.