Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails, Red Wine
(2006)

Review by Ian Melly

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Commercial success is a death knoll for any fan of a band who has been there from the beginning.

How many times have you heard one of your friends (more often than not wearing pants found at Savers and has a knack of using pop culture references such as Hey Dad! and "Walter Mathoau") bitch and moan about "Knowing them from before they were popular" and "It's not as good as their first EP" (The use of the terms 'Gig', 'EP' or 'LP' is also a fairly common occurance).

And as much as I'd hate to say it - but one of my favourite bands of the last few years just seems to have suffered the same fate now that everyone has jumped on board.

There are some superb tracks on Eskimo Joe's third album "Black Fingernails, Red Wine", none more obvious than it's title track (which has been given more radio airplay than Love Generation).

The songs are darker than their previous two albums, the poppy and sweet "Girl" and the more mature break out album "A Song Is A City". There's the latest single Sarah, which despite another (in what seems to becoming a trend for Eskimo Joe's clips and promo photo's) utter wank fest of a video, is a really catchy pop-rock tune. 

London Bombs is also another rather likable ballad, while This Is Pressure is downright catchy, but anything past the halfway mark will leave listeners starting to think 'Hey, didn't I just listen to that song' or 'Is this song still going?'.

The fact of the matter is, this album doesn't seem to go anywhere with each song seeming to hover in the same realm. I don't know whether it's lead singer Kav Temperley's new (yet deliberate) "I'm Michael Hutchance" voice, or just the lack of any positivity - but there is just a general sense of blandness.

I found myself on so many occasions listening to certain songs thinking 'This song is awesome, I cant wait for the chorus', but the killer chorus' never seemed to come.

Much like Jewel's previous misunderstood album in which she was purposely taking the piss out of the pop industry (ultimately, people just thought she had sold out - genius general public!), perhaps Eskimo Joe are attempting to take themselves a little less seriously by doing the Emo "Let's take this thing really seriously" approach.

It is a good album, but it flat lines many times. If only there were injections of light here or there of the likes of Planet Earth or a song that actually leads to the epic finish it promises in the first few verses such as From The Sea - then this could have very well been the must have album of the year. 

Instead, it's just a commercially viable album for the youthful Fox FM masses to go out, purchase and listen to while they stand in front of a mirror fixing up their man makeup making sure it's perfect so they can later say "I don't care what people think of me". If you don't care what people think of you - WHY SPEND SO LONG TRYING TO MAKE YOURSELF LOOK THAT WAY.

In fairness, my annoyance with Emo's has little to do with the Eskimo Joe album (God help us if I ever have to review the latest Good Charlotte single!) - but the moral is somewhat the same. It's all a bit try hard to fit into a mold that doesn't need to be made.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

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