Review –
Jonah’s Pride “Rogue”
Independent
album
“Please just bear in mind it was produced
with NO budget and NO studio,” came the response from artist-manager Lesley
Unsworth that I had received and was to review the new Jonah’s Pride album “Rogue”.
“No Worries!” I replied. “I have heard lounge room recordings that sound like they've come out of Sing Sing!” but, mindful of this comment, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this 13-track second-album from a three-girl one-guy alterna-acoustic folk outfit based in the upper Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. And, sitting through the second listening, I am hearing Mountain Music as it should be recorded/heard anyway - as unaffected by technology as possible without being totally raw and unpolished.
Stylistic parallels could be drawn with artists like Tiddas, Penny Flanagan and Erika’s Jive, and as far as subject matter is concerned these tunes follow a well-used path of life experience, love, loss and anger. But lyrically, while there seems to be a few too many clichés and forced rhymes which spoil the flow, the way the art-work has set the words out is in a way like reading prose, which is a sign of a good song.
Woman Like You and Turn Your Head are the extremes of this collection tempo-wise, brushing the rock edge of the spectrum, whilst All That I Know grabs the listener with the use of a nice cello ambience. Theses stand out from the other ten tracks which tend to travel along, melding together and making for music to which a bush setting could be enjoyed. It would be interesting to compare where they have been since their last release “Infidel” and where they go from here…