Saturday 3 May 2014

Jandek - "On The Way" (Corwood 0755) 1988

Probably one of the, if not thee, most accessible Jandek albums from his vast canon of inaccessibility. The cover displays a world shrouded in darkness, but slide the disc out, and its like removing Jandek's damaged soul, exposing it to light. Behind the conventional chord strumming, and half-decent attempts at corroded blues workouts, still lies the explosively cathartic ego-less Id bearing of all of these records.
Every Jandek record is a letter as personal as it is anonymous. I get the feeling I should not be listening at all? even to study, analyse, and ponder over these personal soundtracks is,somehow,quite immoral. Its like hiding behind an adjoining door, and peering through the keyhole at something very,very, private.
The dimly lit silhouette of a drum kit, hiding in the shadows, is almost a reference to the barely audible drums on the first three tracks; submerged in the distance behind two overdubbed guitars,and a rare appearance of a bass. Jandek almost displays a reasonable rocky blues voice on a few of these tracks, which maybe suggests 'he could do better' if he wanted to; which is kind of reassuring that all this ain't just a joke on us types who read too much into stuff. Just maybe, Jandek isn't a mentally disturbed social casualty who really is trying his best to make a Dire Straits record and failing, unknowingly??

Tracklist: 

A1 Wrap It Up 3:04
A2 Bring It Back To Seventy-Five 2:29
A3 Message To The Clerk 6:46
A4 Give It The Name 5:33
A5 Ambient Instrument 2:23
A6 Sadie 2:20
B1 I’ll Sit Alone And Think A Lot About You 8:50
B2 The Only Way You Can Go 5:28
B3 I’m Ready 5:45
DOWNLOAD on the way by the way HERE!

No comments: