Jesse Malin - Fine Art of Self Destruction

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Music reviews of Fine Art of Self Destruction

Music Review: Junkmedia Review - More pop fly than home run
Rating: 2 Stars

The Ryan Adams parallel is an easy one, given that Adams has his fingerprints all over The Fine Art. He produced the record, played lead guitar and piano, sang background vocals -- hell, he even supplied a gushing blurb for the sticker on the cover: "Jesse's a genius. He scares me he's so good." Hmmm, I'm not quite sure if that's an entirely objective opinion, but oh well.

Malin and Adams really swing for the fences with The Fine Art of Self Destruction. They attempt to conjure up the spirits of Springsteen, Dylan, Westerberg, Young -- basically all of those quintessential loner rock poets we all know and love. This means the album has got a lot of songs about how crazy living in New York City is, how love really hurts in New York City, how drinking in New York City helps alleviate this pain, and, in a bitter twist of irony, how drinking in New York City actually causes this pain, etc, etc. The song titles say it all: "Brooklyn", "Queen of the Underworld", "Riding On The Subway". Maybe there should just be a moratorium on songs about the Big Apple. It's a wacky place, OK? We get it already. In the end, and to run the baseball metaphor into the ground, the album is a pop fly rather than a home run. Malin and Adams leave the bases full, in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The frustrating thing about The Fine Art is that it has all the elements of a great album firmly in place. Malin has got the wounded tough guy act down to a tee, and his backing band combines Crazy Horse distortion with E-Street Band versatility and tosses in a sprinkling of ragged Replacements-style energy for good measure. But as you're listening, the songs begin to sound more and more like play-acting, as if Malin's trying to sound like his heroes more than he's trying to create anything that's all his own. He's not a plagiarist -- there's certainly nothing here that's outright theft -- but the whole vibe is way too familiar.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of Malin making an excellent album down the road. But for now, he needs to get out from under the collective shadow of his influences. He's got potential, but he's not the genuine article just yet.

Tyler Wilcox
Junkmedia Review

Description of Fine Art of Self Destruction

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Country
• Folk
• Pop
• Rock