album review
The Jesus Bolt
Machine Gun Nest
Out 29 September 2023
Second album from Northern couple who live in the South-West: former Blues Aeroplanes and Witness members whose story-telling indie-blues is out on it’s own. Imagine if PJ Harvey had a sense of humour, teaming up with a soulful folk singer like him out of the Waterboys… Ged Babey reviews with help from Vic Ley
I got a zoom funeral later on / He says ‘that sounds like a Fall song’…
This album will make you laugh and make you cry. It may make you want to dance, but it will definitely make you scratch your head or stroke your chin.
It’s a hard album to describe…. Genre-fluid (Alternative blues, skiffle-folk, bohemian art-pop …?) Or as they say: Rich harmonies to shrieking falsettos, a cacophony of guitars laced with waspish organs, clavichords, children’s toy drones and fall down the stairs pianos.
It’s a difficult album to ‘get into’ and took me a few listens. They don’t do easy-listening the Jesus Bolt. They sound like Captain Beefheart, Kirsty MacColl and Richard Ashcroft having a jam, flicking through a scrapbook of random memories… sort of. But then again, nothing like that at all.
The standout track, to my mind is Essoldo With Lights which I wrote about here in depth, so that may be why.
I needed a second opinion so consulted Vic Gale Ley – a mutual friend of myself and the Bolt. A two person album needed a two person review I decided.
(VGL) I knew I was going to love it before I even heard it. I think most of the songs took several listens to understand what it was about them that I loved. I only had to listen to some of them once to know what it was. The first one to grab me was Something Sent or Arriving.. A tentative lullaby for a death doula. (Someone trained in end of life care.. felt like this song would have been helpful when I was caring for my father towards the end) The song is like a compassionate taking of the damp hair from your brow and giving you a much needed kiss on the forehead and maybe a hug. It is inherently both incredibly sad and beautiful. A melancholy poem of a song to rival any.
(GB) Also its one example of several songs which juxtapose modern technology (Zoom, broadband, time-lines) with the past (sugar mice and tangerines) as well as myths and legends.
The closing song, Hail Marys, is pure ‘folk’ (Martin and Eliza Carthy. Richard and Linda Thompson style maybe).What did your last myth die of / When did your ghost disappear from sightbut the Jesus Bolt have only one foot in the past/tradition, the other very much in the present.
One of the most immediate, musically, yet infuriatingly obtuse, lyrically is Arthur Miller Says. Even when you have sight of the lyrics, is still a baffling conundrum – but the tune is a kinda re-arrangement of the Breeders Cannonball – without the intro. So it’s a compulsive riddle. – Like all the love that I have known / How far, how far you fell, cursed like the oldest cinder in Hell / There is a promise, made in any bed / Spoke or / Silent…
(VGL) This is why I asked for the lyrics … I originally thought Hazel was singing ‘desire’ – the repeated word after “there’s a promise made in every bed” but its ‘silent’. My guess would be it’s about Marilyn Monroe… but I can’t claim to understand any of the songs completely .. as they are personal reflections… but that doesn’t stop them being f*ckin’ amazing’.
(GB) In Zoom Funeral I thought she sang ‘latency suicide’ but it’s latency ‘sing-song’. I also had to ask Hazel what latency is (cos I don’t use Zoom) ( it’s the delay/ drop-out you get with a crap connection).
(VGL) It’s like a cosmic disturbance conversation, I like the flippant attitude mixed with resignation and relief that their are some lighter, more joyful elements to life as well
(GB) The song Punk Photo is another genius move. Is a secret / Still a secret / Even when nobody wants to know about it?
And the old get-out clause that ‘it’s punk innit’ exploded: No it’s not out of focus / No it’s not over exposed / No it’s meant to be like that. When in fact, it was probably a happy accident.
(VGL) If the concept for the album is the birth of Venus, then I’m seeing it as a series of stories that illustrate a path or road in a life, not always smooth and frequently painful that leads to the emergence of the divine feminine aspects.
A lot of the album sounds like someone having difficult conversations with themselves.
I love the way Starkie and Winter’s voices work together…
(GB) The member of The Jesus Bolt who always gets forgotten but is an invaluable part of the set up is drummer John Langley – his skilled input gives the songs a backbone and shape.
A Jesus Bolt album is always a collaboration but there are always distinct Hazel Winter songs and Gerard Starkie songs. Partners, but with separate pasts and experiences and outlooks. She is a fighter and unforgiving of those who have wronged her, but someone whose love is as deep as the ocean. He seems to be more philosophical and self-deprecating – and I’m talking about their lyricism – but its hard to separate it from them as people, cos I know them a bit.
The Jesus Bolt are two of the most fascinating, inventive and brilliant songwriters in the country. Machine Gun Nest is a huge triumph, artistically and more of a cohesive album than the debut. The world needs to know their name.
(VGL) I’ll probably buy ten copies of the album and all my best mates will get one for Christmas…
(GB) You’re new to this job in Marketing and PR aren’t you Vic?
Link Tree – to all formats, streaming, downloads
TONIGHT! Sat, 30 Sept 2023 –The Jesus Bolt album launch is at La Ruca89 Gloucester Rd, Bristol BS7 8AS
All words by Ged Babeywith Vic Gale Ley’s input signposted (VGL)
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