Some musings on this reissue from Alan Dearling
This combines new re-masters of the two original Jack Frost albums (from Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens and Steve Kilbey of The Church), together with live recordings and bonus tracks. These Australian musicians only worked together on ‘Jack Frost’ (1990) and ‘Snow Job’ (1995).
These guys really never created a coherent musical identity. But, the albums do contain lots of musical gemstones. There are examples of many different style of music from heavyish riffing, through a lot of jangling guitar tunes, many wordy songs, frequently quite romantic ballads. Plenty of ear-worm lyrics, a rich variety of thinking person’s pop. Sometimes it gets a bit over-blown, a tad too lush, but the guys are great song-writers at their fairly awesome best, as with ‘Civil War Lament’ from their first album. It’s a haunting piece, elegiac and somehow it tugs at the heart-strings.
‘Civil War Lament’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pusk9POhMdw
Lots of tracks remind me of so many other songs and tunes from before the 2000s. Plenty of Byrdsy’ jangling guitars: ‘Providence ‘ is one of their best-known numbers and gives a hint of a nod to Dylan and ‘Chimes of Freedom’. ‘Didn’t know where I was’ turns up twice live on the third CD, though it comes from the original ‘Jack Frost’ album. A clever tale of being dislocated from time and space and of a tattoo in prison! Intriguing. For me, the original album is a bit too poppy, rather too much of the ‘soft rock’ feel, with the voices a bit too prominent in the mix. And there’s bucketloads of sad angst, even on the rather lovely acoustic led track, ‘Ramble’. A lot of ‘Snow Job’ is rather more varied in terms of production and mixing. ‘Jack Frost Blues’ is fuzzed-up, with a rougher sound and more of a mix of instruments, with voices sinking into the mixture. It’s grungier, as at times with ‘Shakedown’, moving into heavier musical territory, a more wilful vocal delivery, but sadly it’s rather brief. I do really love ‘Little Song’. A flight of whimsical fantasy, with an acoustic guitar riff to die for. A ridiculously catchy tune and song.
‘Little Song’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyROtWQ8le0
‘Angela Carter’ is the boys’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’, with author Angela, having an “army of lovers” but “she lives in her own worlds.” ‘Haze’ is another excursion into a new musical direction. Almost Turkish in style, with drones, and a trippy feel.
So in all, it’s smorgasbord. Something for everyone perhaps. One of the well-loved songs, ‘Every Hour God Sends’ with its layers of bass, waves of sounds and vocals could even be Sisters of Mercy joining forces with early Pink Floyd to set the controls for the heart of the sun! Some fabulous moments of sheer beauty…and many are the perfect soundtrack for a doomed love affair!
Jack Frost live on US Cable TV from 1991 with this rather lovely song: ‘Thought that I was over you’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9qCjnbFQTg
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