THE JESUS LIZARD: RACK
Oh what fun! The Jesus Lizard return with RACK - and - spoiler alert - it's fucking fabulous.
THE JESUS LIZARD: RACK
IPECAC RECORDINGS
2024
I’m in the bath, soaking up my first listen of Rake - such is my dedication to bringing you news of its release on the day it arrives.
God bless the Jesus Lizard. It was Goat that did it for me. Double whammy when Liar came out. Went backwards to Head and Pure. Darker; rougher… more depraved. The drum machine on Pure makes them grimier somehow. More lo-fi.
After Liar, Down was good. Shot was cleaned up, but with ace songs. Blue was OK. But starting to sound tired.
Then a break. Yow went to Hollywood and played with Qui. Denison went to a Library and played with Tomahawk. Sims went Accounting and formed his own experimental bass thang, Unfact. I don’t know what Mac McNeilly got up to - but Rack is the first studio release of the band since Blue and the first from this lineup since Shot in 1996, 28 years ago. FFS, I’m old.
Anticipated doesn’t begin to cover it.
There have been three preview tracks; Hide & Seek, Alexis Feels Sick and Falling Down, which was released today. They’re all ace and sound like vintage Jesus Lizard.
Anticipated doesn’t begin to cover it.
And today, my indies-only grey vinyl arrived. Tomorrow, the maroon one, direct from Ipecac, is due to drop on my doorstep.
Anticipated doesn’t begin to cover it.
In the intervening years of this century, it feels like The Jesus Lizard have gained even more respect. Not through nostalgia, but by still sounding relevant as each of those 28 years passes. With the rise of noise rock as a thing, they’ve become the kings of the genre. Barely a single notification can ping from the clusterfuck of noise rock groups I belong to without someone fiddling with their little fish-stick about the band. They’ve become a real thing. Sorely missed. Baited breath.
Anticipated doesn’t begin to cover it.
And here we are at last. Friday 13th. Forever known from now on as Rack Day.
I can’t work out if it’s my taste maturing - noise and discordance having become just an everyday part of my listening experience when perhaps back in the day it was less so - or if The Jesus Lizard have become (shock!) more accessible with age?
They used to sound impenetrable for the first few listens. It proved you were pretty hardcore if you got so far as familiarising yourself with the songs. It took some work.
And yet the joys of Rack - and my FUCK - they ARE joys - expose their wrinkly little selves immediately, like an over-eager flasher standing by the gates of a pensioner’s yoga evening.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably already familiar with the preview tracks. Opener Hide & Seek especially, is a classic on a par with Mouthbreather. It’s followed on Rack by the slowest Jesus Lizard track that I can think of, off the top of my head - Armistice Day. It rolls at an uncharacteristic crawl; brooding and grumbling to itself like an old man waddling down the hall for a piss at 3am.
The up-tempo march of Grind follows. The band have lost none of their clatter; dissolving into awkward off-kilter riffs every time Yow shuts the fuck up. Denison lets loose a lovely slidey solo in the middle of it, before doing his wobbly thing and (erm) grinding to a stop for a bass and drum rumble. It’s a thing of beauty and wouldn’t sound out of place on Liar.
What If..? Follows and it sounds odd from the off. Heavily chorused/reverbed - it’s all guitar pings and shuffles over a trademark Sims bass growl. Yow is speaking and whispering the words in a clean voice. He sounds clean and sober - even when the music picks up, feeds back and drops off into that uneasy club singer shuffle once more.
I honestly don’t know what I think about that. It’s making me a bit uncomfortable.
A small historic joke in a title for the fair folk of Coventry - Lord Godiva is next - and we’re back in Trad Liz territory - perhaps more Down than Goat - the hook-laden guitar and bass immediately draw you in - but rather than throw a cheese-wire around your throat, creepy Yow is howling in your ear and drooling on your neck.
Vulgar little monster. Oh, how I love him.
Falling Down is very much this album’s Puss - the thrashed guitars and smacked drums push Yow to hold notes and wail. It’s a joyful noise. It sounds like Duane Denison, especially, is really having fun - and that becomes infectious. It’s immediate.
Dunning Kruger is pretty straightforward, comparatively - but it does that really cool rhythm thing on the guitars, where the chords jump in sets of three. There’s a big chorus and a cascading guitar solo. It’s almost a wedding song, though I shudder to think what Yow is mumbling about.
Vulgar little monster. Oh, how I love him.
Three tracks rush us to the end - Moto(R) could be a non-album single from 1994. Is That Your Hand? is Then Comes Dudley for mealy-mouthed Millennials. The band exits on Swan The Dog, where Yow is quivering, McNeilly is ON THE NOSE and Denison and Sims are particularly tightly squeezed together. It’s triumphantly Goaty, for the purists.
Look - it’s my first listen - and I wrote this to you instead of rinsing my testicles, so be grateful for that. Rack doesn’t disappoint. The anticipation was worth it, and well rewarded.
Is it a Goat beater? Does it make Liar its biatch? No - but that could never happen, and it’s unfair to hope for it.
But Rack does contain tracks that compete with the best songs on both of those LPs.
Where does it stand against the rest of the discography?
Many may find it sacrilegious - and I caveat that this is my first listen - but my immediate thoughts place it above the rest of the albums. 3rd place is basically unattainable for anyone else ever, so that’s a significant win. Their discography is second to none, FFS.
Square this up against Head, Down or Shot and it holds its own. I’m seeing them in January and am looking forward to hearing all these songs live. That says alot too, especially when time given to these could be spent on songs that I have loved for such a lomng, long time.
Not bad for a bunch of old guys and a vulgar little monster.
Oh, how I love them.
After reading your review I am simply salivating. God bless the Jesus Lizard!
Some real purple prose there, my friend. Already awaiting my CD copy in the coming weeks. Oh yeah.