The Jesus Lizard – Rack (Ipecac) 13th Floor Album Review) ****

Twenty years plus since The Jesus Lizard last released an album, 1998’s Blue, and then split in 1999. Yes, there was a reformation, but that was on the back of past glories. 2024 sees The Jesus Lizard punctiliously returning to aurally assault all ears again.

Rack is not a product of the band coming together in a studio. Rather it is a narrative of their time apart, as the members of The Jesus Lizard lived as individuals, some releasing solo material, others joining existing bands, all having the freedom to not be in The Jesus Lizard. 

It shows. Noticeable about 1998’s Blue was the metamorphosis in David Yow’s singing, it was intelligible. In tandem, there was the sound of rhythm coming through on instrumentation. Between these elements and nurtured by twenty-plus years, The Jesus Lizard has hit back with an album that pushes the boundaries of what fans expect from a The Jesus Lizard album, in a very, very rectitudinous manner.

David Yow has always embodied sardonic swarthiness, like many other vocalists: Lee Ving of Fear, James Chance of The Contortions, and perhaps, maybe even, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp. But on Rack, we hear Yow singing in a manner reminiscent of such great proto/post punk front-folk the likes of Jim Carroll, Richard Hell and Tom Waits. This when combined with the skillsets of guitarist Duane Denison, bassist David Wm. Sims and drummer Mac McNeilly on a slew of songs including: Hide & Seek, What If, Alexis Feels Sick, and Is That Your Hand, and you get the vibe that The Jesus Lizard have not been sitting on their laurels.

There is a groove running through many songs, many more than any previous The Jesus Lizard album ever thrust out, a veritable white funk/punk improv matched up with poetry, not Blake or Elliot, but rather Ginsburg and Huncke (of the Beat Generation) There is also a slew of what fans would expect, from The Jesus Lizard, angular, noisy rock, punked up and wide-eyed slamming against mediocrity: Grind, Falling Down, and Moto(R), ensure that loyalists won’t be disappointed.

Two score and six years on, The Jesus Lizard have built heavily on past glories and anthems, the substratum is as evident as ever, however onto this historic effigy, Yow, Denison, Sims and McNeilly have augmented The Jesus Lizard sound to encapsulate the change, the decades of creative freedom the band members have experienced between albums has brought.

Simon Coffey

The Jesus Lizard’s Rack is out Friday, September 13th via Mushroom Music / Ipecac Recordings