There’s a real depth to the sound of Travelin Jack and a great immediacy. ‘Land of the River’ which opens has me thinking of Jefferson Airplane and vintage Alice Cooper Band, lavishly painted with a warm but dark and vague Gothic shadow. That great opener is followed swiftly by the rather more straightforward classic rock of ‘Metropolis’ which really allows the forthright vocals of Alia Spaceface to the fore.
There’s an almost funky aspect and pop thrust to the hard rock of ‘Keep on Running’ that smoulders somewhere between 70’s rock and hook-laden proto punk of bands like New York Dolls and Blondie, but stripped of their Glam and given a ‘spacier’ aspect.
The riff-heavy ‘Cold Blood’ is further evidence that the 70’s are a huge influence here, though perversely the band seem to refute this, with guitarist Flo ‘The Fly’ Kraemer stating: “There’s nothing retro about our material, we simply prefer the sound of the era when this music was really wicked.” Now either he’s not been listening to enough 70’s rock or it’s some kind of post-ironic statement as the band even soundchecks 70’s influences like Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple.
‘Galactic Blue’ adds a Blues Pills meets Hawkwind thrust and is quite a song; whilst ‘Time’ which starts as a slow-burner of real promise loses some of it’s beauty as the volume is cranked too loud to quickly. It’s a song that ends up ‘very good’ when it really could have been a classic.
The rest of the album is full of great promises but a mixed set of results: ‘Miracles’ misses for me and is too ‘in your face’; whilst the swing of ballad ‘What Have I Done’ works nicely; ‘Fire’ similarly shows great promise but the vocals again are too ‘maxed out’ to the point you wonder whether the band can hear the difference between this and all the great vocals that have come before? Closer ‘Journey To The Moon’, a song about being determined to make your dreams come true, is exquisite.impassioned rock and roll and a great closer.
Travelin Jack falls into that same category that Blues Pills and Royal Thunder already dominate – female fronted Bluesy retro rockers with a really cool sound, great singers, and the songs to back it up. There’s more than enough room for a band like Travelin’ Jack in there too. They’re not quite at that level yet, not quite as polished and they just need a way to temper the passion a little with a bit more subtlety because the fire and the drive is clear already. Alia Spaceface’s vocals here are one of the biggest draws for Travelin Jack but the band just needs to remember that just because they can go up to’10’ you don’t always need them cranked to the max. There’s range there guys we all know it.
TRACKLIST: 1. Land Of The River 4:31 | 2. Metropolis 4:04 | 3. Keep On Running 3:39 | 4. Cold Blood 4:47 | 5. Galactic Blue 4:42 | 6. Time 5:06 | 7. Miracles 3:51 | 8. What Have I Done 3:50 | 9. Fire 4:01 | 10. Journey To The Moon 3:59