Record Review - The JAC

THE JAC

Faux Pas
self-released CD/download

There must be something about Western Australia, maybe it’s the isolation or maybe it’s just in the Swan Lager but over the years some great pop, power-pop and punk-pop has worked its way over the border. –The Dugites, Loaded Dice, Hoodoo Gurus and The Stems just to name a few and Joe Algeri (Jack And The Beanstalks, The Britannicas, Green Beetles) and his one man band The JAC are definitely adding to that pedigree with his latest effort Faux Pas. Eleven tracks of impure pop that always drift a little left of centre, Faux Pas kicks off with 'I Play All The Instruments' - "“I can be a one man band/I can play everything with a single hand/There are no fights 'cause I always get it/And I can take all the credit"” which should tell you straight away that Joe is having fun here and his mix of The Kinks, 70s British pop, new wave, Robyn Hitchcock and Todd Rundgren makes for one hell of a sweet album. 

There’s backward masking, the odd tip of the hat to The Beatles, some great punk pop in 'Julie Got Angry' and 'Persistent Man', the pseudo silliness of 'I'’m A Glass Of Orange Juice'  and then there’s 'Romano The Dog' -–"“Romano the dog is humping Ginger the cat/What do I tell the kids/About life and the universe, it seems so perverse/I think I'll have a cup of tea”" - which, despite its strong English 70s pop feel, reminded me of US band The Big Enjoyers (who also coincidentally owe more than a nod to the world of Rundgren and Utopia). Title track 'Faux Pas' finishes the album off in a swirl of keyboards while adding some crunch to the poptones, really digging in and maybe just hinting at a darker side to Joe.

For this album though The JAC is all snap, crackle and pop and a worthy addition to the Perth pantheon. Whatever it is in the water there, it’s responsible for some great sounds.

Kami McInnes