September 30, 2021

Jesse Malin – Sad and Beautiful World (Wicked Cool)

Jesse Malin sounds as familiar as an old friend you shared your best times and your most difficult with. More into comfort these days than his wild former self. Pitching himself perfectly between Tom Petty and Boss Springsteen. A slightly less melancholic Ryan Adams.

There is much to engage with on Sad and Beautiful World. Fifteen songs and six minutes short of an hour. He calls it a double album but its really three sides of vinyl only. I can only think of two others and they are both exceptional. Cult classic Second Winter by Texas guitar flash Johnny Winter. And Blonde on Blonde.

Malin is a son of New York City as opposed to New York. He was raised in Queens, where The Ramones all lived and kicked around on the streets. He came to attention in 1981. As a precocious teen vocalist in Hardcore Punk outfit Heart Attack, and subsequently D-Generation.

There is little of that surviving. He has travelled down the road of Americana. That encompasses Folk Rock, Power Pop and variations thereof. Ryan Adams and Lucinda Williams have produced recent albums.

He takes a novelist’s approach to his songwriting. Observational and intertwined with his own story but you better be careful trying to read it as autobiographical.

The album title is a reference to a masterful Jim Jarmusch movie, Down by Law. Main character Tom Waits as a beatnik, smooth gravelly-voiced radio DJ. Another off-kilter musician John Lurie is also on board. The third character, Roberto Benigni opines What a sad and beautiful world. As the three find themselves wrongfully imprisoned in a New Orleans jail.

The opening four songs are perfect Petty Americana Pop-Steen.

Greener Pastures. Wait for my prescription/ Hasn’t turned up yet. The resignation of Springsteen. Decline and defeat.

Before You Go. A sad film with a happy ending.

State of the Art. Ringing guitar riffs and galloping Blue-Eyed Canadian rhythms to observational lyrics around the revelations of the teenage spirit. I read the papers and I cried a lot.

Capped by a cover of Tom Petty’s Crawling Back to You. Off the Wildflower album. Close match to the original although Petty is the more stark and sombre.

That would be side one on vinyl.

Tall Black Horses. Country Pop and a bigger production. A piano is dominant. At the conclusion it rises up the scales as it emulates the finale of the Beatles’ A Day in the Life. Without the final crash, replaced instead by dissonance.

Lost Forever is downbeat, resigned and emotional. You never had time for me/ Where were you when I learnt to walk? / Where were you when I lost my way? Simple writing and a beautiful melody. The hurt and damage it conveys is long-lasting.

Jesse Malin is far from a hunched-back maudlin troubadour. He advocates passionately for what he calls Positive Mental Attitude. One of the crucial life lessons he took from early idols Bad Brains.

The Brain’s lead singer HR lends some spoken-word poetry to Todd Youth. A tribute to a former guitarist band-member who died in 2018. Out of time and out of body on a Saturday night. The song rocks and rolls with the energy of early Seventies Elton John and is an inspired nick from Crocodile Rock. A bit of Petty-style galloping rhythms and this would fit on side two of Springsteen’s The River double vinyl.

Almost Criminal carries on in the same vein. An attempt at the wordplay of Dylan copping on to Chuck Berry.

Backstabbers shifts into a different gear. Loading it up with Lou Reed and the signature riffs and rhythms of Rock’N’Roll from Velvet Underground’s Loaded album. Stab you in the back/ Wanna see you crash/ Say you go to heaven in your brand-new Cadillac. A nod to The Clash and original UK rocker Vince Taylor.

The Way We Used to Roll. British influences continue and there are nice echoes of Mott the Hoople here. A little Jazz colouring. Closer to R’n’B and there are some Blues guitar licks. Roll Away the Stone, perhaps.

A Little Death is a real triumph. Starts with a Disco back beat. Then charges off with melodic and uplifting Power Pop. Trying to figure out if it’s a nightmare or a dream. Finally blooms with a riff that connects it to Spruce’s Dancing in the Dark.

Born in the USA was Springsteen’s most overtly socio-political anthem, with its reference to Khe Sahn and Viet Vets. It is also his finest album along with Nebraska. Malin taps into that music at his best.

Dance with the System. Rock’n’Roll with the right amount of swing. Some Rolling Stones swagger circa 1973 to 1978. Does sound quite similar to Dance Little Sister with its riffage.

St Christopher. A Beach Boys anti-anthem. Had my St Christopher on a silver chain/ Didn’t have much money/ All I want is all I want / And all I want is real/ All fucked up in the USA.

A flying view across America. From West Coast to Eastern seaboard. Sympathy for the Rust Belt. The vast Middle and Conservative Christian heartland. The finale has echoes of Roger McGuinn and The Byrds in their Jesus is Just Alright period.

There is a lot to discover and be revealed in the lyrics with repeated listening. The music is familiar, earnest Americana. He leans on his idols and touchstones.

PMA. Positive Mental Attitude. Punk MoFo After-all.

Rev Orange Peel