Burning Your House Down

The supercharged U.K. quintet Jim Jones Revue serves up a breakneck blend of mutant boogaloo and barnstorming garage rock with truly unfeigned abandon and a disregard for volume control. All needles are lodged firmly in the red throughout Burning Down Your House, the group's sophomore full-length. Literally every sound on this record—from pianist Henri Herbert’s deranged boogie-woogie vamps to Jim Jones’ larynx-shredding vocals—is cloaked in distortion. Think of the sound of MC5’s Kick Out the Jams, Blue Cheer's Outsideinside, or of a flight of fighter jets roaring over your head. This can make for an exhausting listen, but the group has the intelligence to switch up its songwriting approach every now and again, and this unexpected stylistic eclecticism ultimately makes Burning Down Your House a rewarding listen. “Shoot First” for instance, borrows some of its primitive energies from John Lennon’s early solo work, while “High Horse” is propelled forward by authentic rockabilly swagger and a searing guitar break that recalls the punk Chuck Berry-isms of X’s ace guitar man Billy Zoom.