Jizzy Pearl - All You Need Is Soul.

Jizzy Pearl – All You Need Is Soul. 6/10.

The album kicks in with the Love/Hate stylings of “You’re Going To Miss Me When I’m Gone” it stomps into the room like the big boy that it is, the vocals explode like a hand grenade, this is what Mr Pearl does best, a nice kind of power punk with great backing vocals, one down and then onto the its mate “Coming Home To The Bone” a similar vein type of rocker, it soon becomes apparent this is an album of formula, some better that others, some worse!

“High For An Eye” simply can’t shake off the AC DC overtones its not a bad track just something niggles in the back of my mind, this is kind of familiar, Thankfully the title track of the album offers up some redemption, a great track that proves Mr Pearl does have the chops to carry off a great album, however its short lived as we return to yet another mid-tempo rock song with “House of Sin” again it’s a nice track but its not great, the biggest fault for this album is the pacing of the album, you  have a smattering of good tracks spread between acoustic cuts and mid-tempo fillers!

“Mortified” sticks to the formula, its solid but is missing the pixie dust of magic, “Frustrated” is next and I bet he is, another mid-tempo plod along, these may work better live, but here its well-played but lacking some oomph! Thankfully another good track turns up just as interest was wandering, “When The Devil Comes” is a nice slow blues number and is full of swagger and muscle, we could do with some more of this as it seems to suit the band, back to the short stomp of “You Don’t Know” placed somewhere else on the album it might have had a chance to breath here it struggles to follow the last track, now we head to the obligatory ballad its like the 1980’s hasn’t happened yet, its not a bad song but could have fitted onto any early Poison or Bon Jovi album, “It Doesn’t Matter” does exactly what it says on the tin, and I do like it, I can see the dry ice and the lighters in the stadiums right now, then back to the formula another mid-tempo song and then the last song proper “Mr Jimmy” is great just the right amount of bile, a few more like this and the album would have scored much higher.

The bonus track is an acoustic version of “You Don’t Know” and this works better, maybe Mr Pearl should have chose the one he liked best and stuck by his convictions. This is not a bad album, its well-played, I enjoyed it and then the lack of variety made me lose interest, Jizzy I always thought would be the perfect replacement for Nazareth he always reminded me of a more musical Dan McCafferty, he always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, some of the album just doesn’t seem to get into gear, some of it rocks in a great massive way and the rest of it is……Bluuuuuuur!

What does stick out the most is a great lyric in “Mr Jimmy” the only good musicians are dead! Would I play the album again? Damn right I would, but it would be depending on my mood, there’s a few tracks that if I don’t fancy, I would flick past, this could have been so much better, hopefully next time.