Monday, June 25, 2007

Jay Reatard - 'Blood Visions' LP Review

JAY REATARD – ‘BLOOD VISIONS’ LP (2006, IN THE RED)

What was the last new rock album that truly gave you ‘the shivers?’ And I’m not talking delirium tremens here. Mr. Jay Reatard of Memphis has crafted just such a work in his ‘Blood Visions’ LP (In The Red). The ‘boy-wonder’ musician and producer already scorched a path through the garage and synth-punk jungle with groups like The Reatards, Lost Sounds, and (believe me) many more, all the while honing his unique attack. His new work is a relentlessly efficient barrage of blazingly original melodic punk-pop that bursts through the tedious garage rock ghetto to claim fresh- uh, blood. Jay has found the perfect vehicle for his righteously misanthropic lyrics, a compellingly ominous musical landscape of modern life run off the rails. Musical strands of predecessors like Devo, Wire and The Adverts are crammed onto a careening personal pop skeleton. Here is a man wary of ‘Greed, Money, Useless Children,’ ‘My Family,’ and even ‘My Shadow.’ While this may not sound like much fun, it’s the sounds that carry it through, nailing one by one with unique hooks that prick the ear and leave a bright stain. For a man with such a body of work behind him, like it or not he’s got a future in store for the rest of us.

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