Jackie-O Motherfucker - Liberation
(Road Cone)
Who’s your favourite avant-garde, Eastern-tinged, Americana-revisionist, free-jazz, Appalachian Folk, electronic post-rock group? Trick question, team! There’s only one answer, and that’s the always reliable Jackie-O Motherfucker. You see, Jackie-O have been at this for a long time, and even though I can’t say I’ve heard any pre-Fig. 5 stuff, everything of theirs that I have heard has always been nothing short of amazing. Liberation is no different.
Unfortunately, the whole thing starts off on a somewhat weak note, with the vibes/guitar/drums almost-jam of "Peace on Earth," probably one of the weakest tracks on the record. The song fails for two reasons: first of all, it doesn’t provide the strong introductory feeling that the last record did with the double punch scrape of "Analogue Skillet" and "Native Einstein." Secondly, I’m personally not all that hot on the song itself. Maybe I don’t favour it because it forsakes for a while the flow of the record, and maybe I just don’t like the track... either way, it’s alright, but I’ve come to expect more from Jackie-O.
Luckily I can still claim my allegiance to the band, because track two, "Ray-O-Graph," is the record’s highlight. Starting off with a very archaic sounding drum machine playing a simple beat and a remorseful guitar line akin to something off of the Dirty Three’s Ocean Songs, and adding, as the song proceeds, a cacophony of instruments including strings and percussion, it’s pretty sweet. It rivals in its overall goodness the wonderful "Your Cells are In Motion" from Fig. 5 and makes up for the weakness of "Peace on Earth."
"Northern Line" is a transition, including indecipherable female vocals courtesy of Honey Owens and a pleasantly meandering feeling; it leads up to the back porch Goliath "In Between." Clocking in at just under twenty minutes, "In Between" is to Liberation what "Michigan Avenue Social Club" was to Fig. 5. Let’s call it a centerpiece. Whatever you call it, it’s great.
The last thing I want to talk about is the excellence of "Something on Your Mind"—I knew JOMF could do the free-jazz thing really well, but here they present the biggest surprise of the album: an actual, cohesive, four minute pop song. I know... wow! What’s even more surprising is that it’s amazing. "Something on Your Mind" has the vibe of really old bluegrass—as in, Civil War era music—and I continue to find myself singing snatches of the lyrics, humming the tune, and thinking about it. Who’d have thought, huh?
So, there you have it. We’ve given you this review a tad late (but not as late as our Calla review, right? right!), but it’s worth it, because the music sure does speak for itself. Is it as good as Fig. 5? Maybe not, but, considering the quality of that album, that doesn’t mean much. This is a standout album from a standout band.
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