Jesse Malin

From page 88 of Classic Rock Magazine July 2004



Cover of July 2004 issue.
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‘The Heat’

(One Little Indian) As compliments go, having Bruce Springsteen learn and perform some of your songs has to rate highly. And this is exactly what happened to New York’s Jesse Malin when he supported the Boss late last year. Listening to this, his self-produced second album, moreover, it’s not hard to see why his songs push Brucie’s buttons: strident of chorus, muscular of guitar and peopled by streetwise characters living urban life in the fast lane, they reek of humanity, good and bad.

To put that another way, Ryan Adams (who, together with Pete Yorn and Fountains Of Wayne’s Jody Porter, guests here) calls Malin a ‘kick-ass storyteller’,

and this sprawling, AOR-with-a-punktwist record demonstrates that truth time and again. ‘Mona Lisa’ – all Byrdsian guitars and deliciously syncopated vocals – is an ace opener in which ‘ drinking like you’re Shane MacGowan ’ signals post 9/11 disaffection; ‘Since You’re In Love’ is a bittersweet note to an ex wrapped in a shoe-gazer’s wall of sound. True, the album may be a little long, but as gripes go, that’s small beer. ★★★★ ★

James Halbert

Peter Hammill
Blaze






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