September 3, 2002

JJ72 : London Camden Barfly

...a dark, difficult and at times brilliant band. It suits them...

Something bizarre has happened to JJ72 in their year away. Not to drummer Fergal - he still looks like he's run away from the army. Nor to bassist Hilary, whose face remains frozen in the look of a 14-year-old struggling to answer an impossible question from her Geography teacher.

But at tonight's oddly small comeback gig, Mark Greaney is transformed. He has a blond mop, the confidence of a military dictator - his bandmates look genuinely timid in his presence - and a voice that now sounds like an electric storm. He even addresses us as his "children", although he's probably the youngest person in the room.

The metamorphosis from indie choirboy into the star of some melancholy goth opera is due to new album 'I To Sky'. After touring the US with Coldplay, it seems Chris Martin's ambition has rubbed off on Greaney and helped to inspire a mad, ambitious opus that makes The Coral sound like Rod Stewart.

But when this newly purposeful Greaney appears, starkly lit, for the stately piano ballad 'Nameless', the lush calm mood is beguiling. It doesn't last long: they soon embark on a voyage of relentless metaphysical lyrics married to the guitar violence of Smashing Pumpkins and a dark, cold pool of bass last heard from miserabalists The Cure.

The darkness arrives with 'City'. It begins with electronic shudders then crashes into five minutes of breaking glass and Greaney screaming "through the loss, the pain". And there's no let-up. 'Half Three' is a tortured mental breakdown set to pounding drums and 'Brother Sleep' a ghostly acoustic lament, while 'Serpent Sky' sounds like Korn. Really. The whole while, a thrashing Greaney performs as if possessed by some caveman spirit.

In this context, 'October Swimmer' and 'Oxygen' are somehow soothing, even with Greaney adding spiteful, spiky guitar solos. On old single 'Snow', Greaney actually seems to relax and enjoy himself - and the audience responds enthusiastically, enjoying a song that has a tune and lyrics you can sing along to. JJ72 could do with more of these.

Which is not to say that all the new songs sneer at melody. Tonight 'Formulae' sounds like a classic single and 'Always & Forever' a chiming, pained anthem worthy of Coldplay. But, like his heroes Billy Corgan and Robert Smith, Greaney wants to make you feel shaken and confused rather than simply elated.

JJ72 have, then, officially become a dark, difficult and at times brilliant band. It suits them.

Andre Paine