Jones Street
Out of the Gutter

This time we visit Jones Street, a band that was active in the mid-nineties when they recorded the songs for this album. Back then they never released an album, these songs were first issued on a differently titled release in 2008, but this new issue has a different sequencing and title. Sometimes you can find gems within the bands and albums never released, but there is often a reason to why a band and their songs were never released in the first place. So, how about Jones Street? Will this new album take them out of the gutter?

Inspired by band like Skid Row or Guns N’ Roses, sleaze or hair metal is how they would be described. Like most of their peers they make catchy choruses and things like that, gnarly voiced vocals, no surprises. The songs are of the expected variety for a sleazy album, the sound is probably fresher than most that we hear in the genre, especially of the time. It sounds more modern than the nineties, but then again sleaze never really sounds modern. The playing time is a bit long, the album is as varied as most sleazy album.

Without novelty it is difficult to be really interested in what Jones Street has to offer, but it is a good album with good songs. Accessible, easy to like, but also easy to grow tired with. Not an album that will stand the test of time too well, yet it is probably more timeless than much in the genre. Still, with sleaze it is mostly like if you have heard one album you have heard them all, they sound too much alike and Out of the Gutter is no exception to this – this could almost have been songs from any nameless album in the genre. So, it may be both good and listenable, it doesn’t set the world alight and it will not age well.

I don’t dispute the decision to release these songs, they are probably good enough to impress the fan of the genre, I just wonder how long they will be impressed. It is hardly a timeless classic, so you will most likely listen for a while and then put it away forever. Kind of like most albums in the sleazy genre, it is good but not really that impressive.

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