The Jim Jones Revue - Burning Your House Down

This is the follow up to the self-titled debut and here the band has ever-so-slightly cleaned up their act (less over the top distortion, reverb and echo), but not lost any of their energy or excitement.

"Dishonest John" opens the record with a blast of Black Moses-sounding punk'n'roll, while "High Horse" sounds like the MC5 doing 50's r'n'r. They seem to be working more on their grooves than their noise on tunes like "Foghorn" and "Big Len", though there is enough fuzz-driven guitar to keep anyone satisfied! "Premeditated" has a fantastic driving piano and a rockin' beat that will have you bouncin' in your seat!

Startin' with an early Stones kinda riff and a heavy blues feel, the title track is a r'n'r dance party all on its own, which Jones just growls through. Mortimer's piano dominates "Shoot First", moving it from almost a poppy number to a cool r'n'b jam. Then "Elemental" pounds in like a 2x4 to the skull - non-stop action from everyone on this number creating a wonderful r'n'r mania. Again, some flashbacks to Black Moses here, which is never a bad thing!

I'll be damned if "Killin' Spree" isn't a cross between "Natural Born Killers" and "American Bandstand" - a dance number for psychopaths! Jim is at his preachin' best in the rock gospel of "Righteous Wrong" and the band closes with a boogie-woogie rocker, "Stop the People", which actually isn't that far removed from Aerosmith's best.

Not nearly as deranged as the first record, but still a powerful piece of rock'n'roll that should be in everyone's collection!