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.
