ALBUM REVIEW: Puke – Jamie Lenman
Former REUBEN frontman JAMIE LENMAN is back with his sixth solo offering Puke. An album brought to life in less conventional methods than his previous offerings. An album that Lenman says “nothing took longer than a day to make”. Whilst listening, this is very apparent. Lenman wanted to go for something that sounded raw and rough around the edges and for the majority of artists this does work. However, despite some fun moments, JAMIE LENMAN doesn’t quite hit the mark with this rare misfire of his.
Opening track, Not Likely does start the album off well. Ringing guitars greet us before descending into a great grungy riff that sees Lenman growling over the music as he takes aim at everything that seems to be wrong with the world and questioning if we can ever overcome it. The answer? Not likely. The song treads familiar water from start to finish before its massive ending, but it’s the only song of any substance on the record. A forty second offering of I’m A Cunt follows next, which looking at the title does sound fun. However, due to the raw nature of the track, it comes across as very incoherent where you struggle to hear the lyrics and before you know it, the track is over. Aurora Borealis (At this time of day? At this time of year?) is up next. There is a cool and broody sound to this and it is spoken word. On paper, this is a cool idea. But when it comes to it, it’s JAMIE LENMAN listing things he doesn’t like (LED ZEPPELIN, BLACK SABBATH and the titular Aurora Borealis) and pondering what he is missing since so many people like them. The music is cool, and is worthy of a better song, but the lyrics/spoken word nature does come across as ‘old man yells at cloud’ which detracts from the music itself.
We do hit some moments of quality, where the creative process of the album does work. Lose Weight For Weddings has some cool frenetic energy where Lenman’s screechy vocals work really well with the swirling nature of the track which leaves you pondering why there wasn’t more of anything this quality on Puke. The angry and punchy guitar is mosh pit ready and has a wonderful bounce to it that really shows what this album could have been. It is the same with Sledgehammer, by these two songs, the album has sort of found its footing. Crashing drums and a groovy guitar riff make the perfect combination of Lenman’s almost anguished vocals and screeches as it borders into metal territory. The song then evolves into absolute anarchy where you can’t really tell what is going on but it sounds great and is tailor made for two stepping and sweaty tiny venues. You’re Nothing is another great track that has you thinking that this album could have been a short EP rather than an album. It combines the energy from the previous two songs for yet more chaos by feeling like an IDLES song on steroids, the swirling and screeching guitars build up and build up to a wonderful crescendo that ends with JAMIE LENMAN screaming “YOU’RE NOTHING” before ending and you can genuinely feel the exhaustion Lenman exudes through the songs.
Movies On TV acts as the penultimate track of the record which feels like it is trudging towards its end. If you’re feeling like you’ve heard it before, it is very familiar music wise to the album opener Not Likely. It doesn’t offer anything of any substance and feels like a retread of mediocrity of what came before. Whatever good will came from the burst of quality before this one, quickly starts to fade by the end of the track. Every Second Is Gold ends the album on a brighter note. Its monstrous sounds are frustrating as it leaves you wondering, why wasn’t anything of this ilk the foundation of the album throughout listening. It is a wonderful burst of anger from Lenman as you can feel every emotion in the lyrics as he is getting all his negativity through the lyrics in what will feel cathartic towards other listeners.
Despite Puke being eight tracks long, it does feel like you’ve listened to something much longer. Despite there being fairly dull and tedious moments, there are and thankfully, moments of quality that remind us of Lenman’s better work as every so often, his ear for great melodies and monstrous riffs come to the forefront. You have to admire the creative process though, it can sometimes work, but there are also times it doesn’t. Hopefully whatever JAMIE LENMAN cooks up next shows us this was just a blip in the quality of his output.
Rating: 6/10
Puke is out now via via self-release.
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