JUNGLE
It's So Fuck'n Great To Be Alive (Porcelain God)
Reviewed by John Sekerka

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Believe it or not, there were some redeeming things about the seventies. It takes a bunch of youngster upstarts to shake my cobwebbed memory out of visions of platforms, satin shirts and prog rock, and I thank 'em. Jungle take that savvy New York Doll dress up and rock out approach to their rock, and lordy don't it sound fresh! There's a lot of Big Star in this record, though Alex never rocked this hard upon leaving the Box Tops and his teenage growl. "Hey! Little Child" resurrects a golden nugget from Chilton's swank yet totally buried "Flies On Sherbert" solo album. As resurrections go, it's a beaute, riding an insistent marching beat, a simple sinuous guitar lick, a demonic vocal and a totally taboo subject (flirting with a Catholic Girl on her way home from school). If the seventies really do come back, it had better be with Jungle leading the way.

© 1999 - John Sekerka