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JIZZY PEARL OF LOVE/HATE
All You Need Is Soul
Frontiers Music Srl - 2018
http://www.jizzypearl.com

Hey Hey, the gang's all here! Let me get something out of the way first so that we can just concentrate on my thoughts about this album. I have to admit that other than than the LOVE/HATE songs "Blackout In The Red Room" and "Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?", I've never really paid much attention to the collected works of Jizzy Pearl. There's not much more of an explanation than to see that I didn't care for the way his vocals sounded. Despite being in possession of a gritty blues sounding vocal style, there was something a little bit too screechy for me to fully get into his work.

So you might wonder why I decided to review this album. Well, I'm always one for someone surprising me or changing my mind with a superior performance. And when I heard a couple of songs before the official release of this album back in May, I found myself enjoying what I was hearing.

It may have taken me a while to get around to doing my review but I wanted to fully immerse myself into the music of All You Need Is Soul. For the most part, I was vastly entertained by what Pearl had to offer. Appearing to be in full control as he wrote and produced the entire album, Jizzy kicks things off with "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone", a fast paced rhythmic rocker. While his vocal style is pretty similar to what I've always heard in the past, it really works with the song. There's a fantastic guitar solo as well.

Throughout the course of the album, Pearl's vocals alter to fit the songs and I found this varying of vocal dexterity to help sharpen the material. There's no jamming one style into a song that calls for something different. Songs like "High For An Eye" have a catchy chorus while the one true attempt at balladry, "It Doesn't Matter" is suprisingly effective. It's got a bit more of an edginess to the music but it does worm itself into your musical heart.

I wasn't crazy about how repetitious the title track came off, but then the same sense of repetition actually worked on "Frustrated". The latter song is a killer example of a blitzing aggressive rocker. I found that "Mortified" and "Little Treasures" were very weak songs. They just never quite came together enough for me to fully enjoy them.

Lyrically, there are some excellent themes woven into various songs. Pearl addresses the early deaths of a number of musicians that perished at the age of 27 in "Mr. Jimmy". He name checks the usual suspects of Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain and the title refers to Jimi Hendrix. I thought the line "You don't have to die just to show me your worth" was especially poignant. I'm not quite sure if I'm reading more into the lyrics of "You Don't Know What It's Like" than I should but it seems to me that the idea of women throwing themselves at rock stars is the overall thrust of the lyrics.

By far, the coolest bit of lyrical storytelling is in the song "When The Devil Comes". There's an epic feel to the entire track. The music soundtrack gives an almost cinematic backdrop and Pearl sounds freaking outstanding on the song. It's a tossup as to whether this song or the mid-to-uptempo slow burner "House of Sin" is the showcase track for the album. Both are dripping in high quality rock and roll and made me sit up and take notice as they played.

I'm always interested in what it takes to make someone into a fan of any performer. As I said in the beginning, I wouldn't have called myself a Jizzy Pearl fan before hearing this album. While this is not a perfect album, the artistry on display for All You Need Is Soul has made me completely re-evaluate my perceptions of the singer. This is a the kind of rock and roll we as music fans need to remind certain other artists that rock is NOT dead!

4.1 Out Of 5.0