Jesse Malin - New York Before The War [Velvet Elk Records / One Little Indian Promo]

Scheduled for March 30th, 2015 via Velvet Elk Records / One Little Indian is Jesse Malin's new album "New York Before The War", a longplay piece inspired by a graffiti simply stating 'The War' which suddenly popped up in front of Malin's apartment window back in December 2013 and led to a close examination of his career and beliefs throughout the forthcoming months of songwriting and recording. The outcome of this reflective and well productive period is something a little different then one would usually expect to be reviewed on these pages - a proper, rock solid longplay piece of classic Rock'n'Roll music including great bits like the oil and dirt breathing rebellious youth anthem "Turn Up The Mains", the intimate, slightly R.E.M.-reminiscing "She's So Dangerous" and sometimes even more trivial, Don McLean'esque radio songs like "The Years That I Was Born". With "Freeway" Jesse Malin serves what could be referred to as the second, slightly more anthemic bit on this album that's finally about to last and possibly deeply impact some adventurous teens life for a reason, a bit of a PostPunk-y twist turning Indie comes in with the bass funky "Deathstar" and the final "Bar Life" turns out to be a sweet, piano'esque ballad for more romantic hours. Recommended for all those loving their Classic Rock right.