Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails, Red Wine Review
Posted by Lotfi Sariahmed on 09.24.2007
No, this has nothing to do with ice cream...much to my chagrin.
Howdy everybody. They call me Lotfi Sariahmed and you may know me from Planet Tapout in the MMA section or Full Contact with Sports and specifically college football. I didn’t exactly know what Eskimo Joe was when I was given the option to review the CD. Heck, I’m still not sure I do. I just heard the name and it made me chuckle. So I decided to see what these guys were doing. With Black Fingernails, Red Wine, Eskimo Joe made its U.S. debut. The band has been very successful in Australia and they’re looking to establish their name here in the states with their latest album. Before I get into the album, lets meet the band shall we?
Band Members:
Kavyen Temperley: Bass and Lead Vocals
Stuart MacLeod: Lead Guitar and Back-up Vocals
Joel Quartermain: Drums on recordings, Guitar, Keys, Backing vocals
Here’s an entire list of the songs on the album.
1. Comfort You
2. New York
3. Black Fingernails, Red Wine
4. Breaking Up
5. Setting Sun
6. London Bombs
7. Sarah
8. This is Pressure
9. Beating like a Drum
10. Reprise
11. Suicide Girl
12. How Does It Feel
As for my first impressions of the album, well it all starts with the album color. You saw/see it at the top of the page. It’s a bit dark with the watercolors and all. I’m intrigued. But it gives me the impression that I’m going to be listening to a “deeper” album if that makes sense.
The first song of the album sets the stage for the rest of the album with Comfort You. It’s a nice impression to make for your first song on the U.S. debut. I wonder whether or not the lyrics in this song are really that necessary. They just use the words I will come to comfort you in various forms for the whole song. I think they should have just made the song an instrumental and done away with the words completely. It would have made for a stronger opening. As for the song itself, I got this idea that it’s an interesting combination of Coldplay and Incubus. Chew on that for a bit. The second song New York really drives home that comparison to Coldplay’s lead vocalist Chris Martin. The keyboard plays a prominent role in the song and will continue to play some roll for at least the first half of the album.
While the first two songs were a bit slower and darker, the title track on this album picks up the pace a bit. It’s more energetic than the first two songs and starts a pattern that will continue through the next two songs. But the problem is I keep thinking the group is on the verge of breaking out into a Billy Idol song with Black Fingernails, Red Wine. The song has a flow and beat but it just sounds like something I’ve heard before. That’s a consistent problem this band has throughout this album. It’s not necessarily that they have a bad sound. It’s just a sound you seem to have already heard somewhere else, whether it be in the 80’s, at the end of a show like Scrubs, or with a song by Incubus or Coldplay. London Bombs wraps up the first half of this album with another mellow and calm song. There was a very mellow beat and it’s a nice song but it wasn’t too slow.
The second half of the album gives us what the first half of the album has been teasing for too long. A strong rock beat. Sarah was the obligatory love song on the album but it’s a very nice change of pace. It also leads you through the final half of the album that gives you that same rock sound. Beating like a Drum is the best song on the album in the sense that it’s the most original sound on the album. It’s more like Eskimo Joe than anything else. But with every good aspect of this album there seems to be an obligatory frustration. The problem with the song is that it ends too early. Listen to the song and you’ll know what I mean.
The album also comes with a Bonus DVD to go along with the 12 songs. The Bonus DVD contains four music videos to songs on the album. Black Fingernails, Red Wine, Sarah, New York and Breaking Up all have music videos and you could see them all on this DVD. Not much to say on the videos themselves though I do enjoy creativity. So I guess I’ll say that.
The 411: The best way to describe this album is frustrating. While the sound isn't bad, it always sounds like something else you've already heard. I can't shake the Coldplay comparisons and at one point Eskimo Joe sounds like what Coldplay would sound like if it were around in the 80's. It's sound teetered too much between calm and mellow and energetic and rock and it wasn't the good kind of teetering. It's not a horrible album, but it's definitely not something you need to go out and buy either.
