Jungle

It is very rare that I ever buy anything from HMV. I normally pop in for a look around and see what's new, then go home and order anything I'm after online (one lovely exception was Deep Red that I found a lot cheaper than Amazon). So anyway, I was knocking about in said shop the other night, perusing the anime DVDs when I felt myself having a little dance to something. This is quite good, I thought, vaguely slow but with a nice little groove to it. I carried on past the huge rack of horror films that I can't be bothered to look at any more due to the feeling that the swish covers are hiding cheap low budget useless offerings and moved on to the 5 for £30 blu-ray stand. And again I felt a desire to get those hips wriggling and dance with a shop assistant who sported a bald head/long beard combo. What is this pesky album?

I went to the counter to ask and it took the fellow ages to find out but it turned out to be a new release called 'Jungle' by 'Jungle'. Just 'Jungle'. I left the shop thinking that I'd order it when I got home. But then I thought that this was a bit mean, they had recommended it after all, so I went back and bought it (and - in a fit of impulsiveness - Rise of the Planet of the Apes on blu-ray for £4.99).

Got back to the car and slapped in the new CD. But wait. The outer cardboard sleeve is very lovely. Very minimalist. The case is plain black too. As is the CD. Mmm, nice. Bombing along through town, I turned up the volume and listened to some smooth quality groove based action. My main worry was the level of catchiness.

I know nothing of 'Jungle' and I don't want to look and find out. I have a severe lack of knowledge of popular culture so I don't know whether they are mega popular, whether they were the winners of The X Factor or whether they are the usual kind of no-hopers that we love so much. 

I've given it a while before writing this review to let the dust settle and yep, the catchiness has worked against it. Most of the songs sound very similar, slow, groovy, lots of drum track drop outs but generally pleasant. The bass lines are sometimes good enough to get Bernard Edwards' toes tapping. As with a lot of commercial albums I've heard recently the last four of five songs tail off into tedium as if they think listeners won't get that far so they'll bang all of the rubbish at the end. The highlights are 'Busy Earnin' (which has got single written all over it), 'Time' and 'Julia'. Apart from that they're all much of a muchness. It's still okay, but I am tiring of it all.

Give it a listen, and if you like one you'll probably like them all. Maybe you will find yourself dancing with a tattooed gentleman too.

evlkeith=