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Jackal - Album Review: Sparkle

17 Mar 2015 // A review by Peter-James Dries

Five albums in, it shouldn’t be too much to ask for people to love this band and their unique sound. This review could be reduced to three words; “Awesome, Five Stars.” That should be enough of an introduction, description and summary of Jackal’s best album to date. 

Sparkle retains that raw feel from the previous albums, raw in the sense that it sounds like a band in a room feeding off each other’s energy and also raw emotionally like a spigot to the heart. This isn’t a dead pan singer reciting other people’s poetry while a band rehash chords that have been and done. There is some imaginative Sonic Youth meets Pink Floyd worthy experimentation going on here.

And that mixing. For something that feels like a live, full band one-take it’s amazing the sound isn’t squished into a sonic mud. It’s so clear that it feels like you could almost slide your hand between the layers.

Sparkle is an evolution of Castle in the Air and an almost total deviation from the heaviness of Only Everything. It’s more of a laid back album. A kind of Post-Seventies dreamer sound. Well… the largest portion of the album is. Go-Go Star and The Funny Side don’t belong grouped next with anything; I’ve never heard anything like the energy on those tracks.

There are Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness vibes mixed in with the other influences. Excuse the Smashing Pumpkins reference, I’ve just watched the Graceful Swans of Never documentary, but Jackal, just like the Smashing Pumpkins, change their style with every release. Between songs even. No one would pick the George ‘Gabby’ Hayes would jump forth from behind the punky, no-wave opener Go-Go Star (my favourite track on the album). And it would be hard to pick that those songs were made by the same band that made Spoons and Hammers.

Still on the Smashing Pumpkins analogy, there was a quote in that documentary from Norm Winer, the station manager for a Chicago radio station, about Adore being a personal record, and with personal records it can be hard finding an audience that can relate.

Saying vanity projects don’t have the mass appeal puts the onus on the band to provide music the masses will enjoy.  The masses listen to terrible music. It should be up to them to find good music out there. Jackal isn’t the kind of band to make crap music just so the public will be told by television that they're good. Their advice to aspiring musicians in a 2012 interview was “don’t try and follow the crowd or the scene or whatever. The only real trick for writing good songs is to use your imagination, just try and play whatever music feels natural to you and don’t worry about whether or not other people will like it.”

It’s advice that I feel Jackal follow themselves. I’ve been trying to peg the band since I first heard the Pantera/Led Zep heaviness of Rivet Head, and through my three album journey with loving this band I’ve decided that kind of “Whatever, I’ll do what I want” ethic is what defines the band. You can’t peg a band that is able to be proficient at so many different genres while giving it their own distinctive sound.

Sparkle is available from the Jackal Bandcamp page (http://jackalband.bandcamp.com/).

 

About Jackal

Jackal are a four-piece band based in Auckland. With a wide range of influences, Jackal have created a unique progressive rock-meets-psychedelic sound that has captured an interest in Auckland's alternative scene. Jackal never fail to put on a high-energy show and are an absolute must-see live. Make sure to follow Jackal to stay updated with their frequent gigs and a new album which will undoubtedly impress.




Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Jackal

Releases

Jumping Out The Window
Year: 2016
Type: EP
Sparkle
Year: 2015
Type: Album
Castle In The Air
Year: 2013
Type: Album
Only Everything
Year: 2012
Type: Album
Furnace Creek
Year: 2011
Type: Album
Sleeping Life
Year: 2009
Type: Album

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