Jon Fratelli - Psycho Jukebox


Jon Fratelli would've been quite a long way down my list of potential multi-platform musicians from the 2000s lasting into the 2010s. But the former Fratelli has so far enjoyed a bit of success with the quite-alright-but-forgettable Codeine Velvet Club and has now decided to ditch them all and go entirely solo. It's no great secret that for pretty much the entirety of his career he'll have been fighting off Pitchforkers and their anger over the rise of pub-rock (and even for the most enduring listener, Chelsea Dagger got a little bit annoying) but perhaps the opportunity is now there for Fratelli, real name John Lawler, to make a creative stamp on the music world. Certainly his second band showed potential but seemed more pastiche than pastime, and never really inspired me.

The outlook just peering over the tracklisting is bleak. The false, doe-eyed nature of some of Fratelli's songwriting is transparent enough to give itself away with titles like 'Oh Shangri La' and 'Give Me My Heart Back MacGuire'. On Codeine Velvet Club (the self-titled record) there were heavy country-western twangs and rock-n-roll vibes throughout but they seemed to be weightier and more theatrical - sadly such attributes missing on Psycho Jukebox.


Don't let the intro to 'Tell Me Honey' fool you - the familiar heavy riffs quickly shadow the weird rhythm and we're thrusted into a tambourines-and-stomping chorus. There are times when it begins to feel like the theme tune to an educational piece about recycling and the chirpiness is initially infectious, but it fades after a couple of listens. The conventional 'Daddy Won't Pay Your Bill' has, again, catchy qualities with its predictable progressions and chorus, but the real problem here is the lyrics: a second person assault at nondescript bad girls with tedious rhymes. First single 'Santo Domingo' has a bit of a "potential Becks advert" buzz about it with an inoffensive tune; it's certainly catchy, and does what's necessary, just...nothing more. On 'Rhythm Doesn't Make You A Dancer' though there are glimpses of songwriting with...panache. There are times where Fratelli's delivery mimics Alex Turner's, to slightly put my neck on the line... but again, lyrically, there're too many hackneyed turns of phrase ("put your money where your mouth is", "1 plus 1 don't equal an answer"). Musically though it's fairly faultless.

After a heavily Fratellis opening the record then takes what I'd call a Flamingo turn. You see, 'The Band Played Just For Me' suffers from the same Springsteen-aiming posture executed with a damp squib that Brandon Flowers attempted last year. The rockabilly tune, the facsimile croaks and the die-hard attempts at earnesty in the lyrics are seen a mile off. 'Magic and Mayhem' feels like the Human League's 'Mirror Man' taken down a dirt track and being repeatedly hit over the head with a spade; a glitzy but sadly unoriginal tune masqueraded with some twinkles and twangs. The pub-rock returns though on 'She's My Shaker' and whether you're a fan of it or not, you've got to concede it's the approach he pulls off most convincingly. Catchy it is, but Chelsea Dagger it ain't.

The intro to 'Cavemen' though aspires to much more than Fratelli is capable of. With its rapid (not at all stolen from Tomorrow Never Knows) drum hook it immediately feels contemplative, but gooey devices seep through (the background "aaaah!"s, the echoes of his own lines). The bouncy 'Baby We're Refugees!' revives a little of the party spirit only for 'Oh Shangri La' to piss all over it again with unintentional self-referential undertones ("pointless noise"). Although as forced as the closure of 'Give Me My Heart Back MacGuire' feels, there's a swansong quality about it that feels like watching a nice sunset and stuff, yeah. Sorry. Lazy. ahaohoiha.


You'll notice I rarely quoted lyrics - solely because this is purely a musical affair and to think otherwise is delusional. Sadly, though, where Fratelli has aspired to more than his most successful niche is where he's fallen flattest: the retro-rock and nostalgia feels forced and is executed with absolutely no subtlety or imagination whatsoever. Sure, there's a couple of sing-along standards, as on any Fratelli record, but any hope for an exciting and daring collection of jukebox standards are scuppered.

Rating: 3.5/10
Highlights: Santo Domingo, Give Me My Heart Back MacGuire, Rhythm Doesn't Make You A Dancer, Baby We're Refugees!
Avoid: The Band Played Just For Me, Daddy Won't Pay Your Bill, Oh Shangri La, Cavemen

Artwork Watch: Name me one good album where the artist is sat on an amplifier on its cover.
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