By Henry Lipput
On Visions In The Bowling Alley (Big Stir Records), the great sounding new album from The Jack
Rubies, the faders are pushed to their limit and the troop of female background singers
add, depending on the song’s lyrics, either a hint of lust or more than a hint
of menace. Taken all together it’s a toxic mix that mirrors the toxic society
in which we now live.
Visions In The Bowling Alley is a dreadful (as in “full of
dread”) album warning us of not only the dangers that await us but also letting
us know that many of them are already here. For example, “Are We Being
Recorded?,” the album’s first single released earlier this year addresses not
only the surveillance state we are forced to deal with every day but also the
algorithms that take notice of everything we watch or listen to on whatever
form of media we are using.
And speaking of dread, if such a thing has a song it would
be “This Is Not A Joke” which begins with the sound of an upcoming disaster, a
message from the future letting us know the dread we’re fearing might already be here:
“This is not a joke/The lost look in your eyes/The rules are there are no rules.”
The song gets under your skin and not in a good way.
And don’t even think of having a stable or lasting relationship.
On the bass-heavy “Phantom” swirling backwards guitar licks combine with a
violin played by the devil himself. Following a breakup a devastated man moves
to a slum with probably the only possessions he can carry to what the lyrics
describe as “a senseless killing neighborhood.” Once there he continues to see his former
loved one wherever he looks or wherever
he is and wonders if she’s actually there or a figment of his broken(-hearted)
mind.
Lead singer Ian Wright and the full band have a field day
with the bluesy “Swamp Snake.” It’s a terrific listen with Wright spouting
metaphors as he eases himself into someone’s bedroom.
“Be Good Or Be Gone” might seem like a threat at the beginning
of a relationship but on this song it’s more of a kiss-off message at the end
of one: “You can do anything you wanna do I feel no pain/That’s what I say even
though it isn’t true/That’s what I say now I’ve lost you/Be good or be gone
babe.” Guitarist SD Ineson adds Jagger-like harp fills to the mix and background
singers Annabel Wright and Cat Henry become an essential element to the song’s
sound.
