Having three guitarists in a band might seem a bit excessive (they said the same about the likes of The Eagles, Lynard Skynard and Springsteen‘s E Street Band…I wonder what ever happened to them), but the art is not to use these additional instruments to create merely sonic weight or additional volume but to use them to build intricate interlacing melodies, delicate musical motifs and clever dynamic between players. And if you want to know what that sounds like, give It Comes Back a spin.
This sophomore album from Boston’s Jean Paul Jean Paul (so good they named them twice) is bursting with songs that straddle the divide between punchy, muscular alt-rock and poised melodic indie. And if, like me, you still regard Bean Town as the epicentre for perhaps the golden age of indie music (Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Belly, Buffalo Tom, Morphine, The Lemonheads), It Comes Back shows that JP2 are more than up to the challenge laid down by such seminal bands.
“Jai alai” proves to be the perfect opener, exactly the blend between rock grit and indie groove that I was talking about. From here, things swing one way or the other as required. “Fix Bayonets” leans more into alt-rock realms, feeling at times like the sort of sound that Foo Fighters might have pulled off if they had thought about things a bit more, while “Secrets” is a spiralling and understated indie ballad, though a ballad with balls, and a lovely example of that classic duel guitar sound, and as a fan of Thin Lizzy I think it is great to hear it making its presence felt again in the modern age.
It Comes Back is a fine album, one that shows that indie music can both kick arse and cut the mustard, as we say on this side of the Atlantic, and that rock music can be both big and clever. I guess that most discerning music fans already knew that, but it is always nice to be gently reminded.
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