Jesu - Why Are We Not Perfect?

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brett on Thu 04 Sep, 2008.

Why Are We Not Perfect, the new one from Jesu, kicks off with a clipped, reverb-y drum beat that made me wonder for a second if Justin Broadrick's been devouring dubstep, then it gets even more surprising as the first track is probably the poppiest thing we've ever heard him do. It really doesn't sound like the Jesu stuff I've heard before at all but that's not a negative by any means, it's a pretty slow burner built on sheets of glacial synths and glockenspiels with the guitar noise buried in the mix. I don't know if the vocals are really needed here though.. The style of them remind me a little of some of Mogwai's vocal tracks, something like 'R U Still In 2 It?' The others are cool too, all of them have a very lightly dancey almost trip-hop sort of feel to them. These are the tracks that featured on the split 12" they did with Eluvium, plus two alternatve versions so if you missed out on that one here's your opportunity.

Stagnation and musical complacency are components completely unknown to jesu mastermind and sonic alchemist Justin Broadrick.
From record to record, and sometimes even from song to song, visible transformation in the molecular make up of jesu is made plain to any and all
willing investigators. While the core personality remains perpetually intact, the outer trappings continue to shift and fluctuate, which results in renewed
vigor and vitality for jesu, rather than providing fractured evidence of a shaky identity. With this new five track EP (2 songs of which originally
appeared on the vinyl only split 12" with eluvium), Broadrick has set aside the heavy foundation of pounding guitars prevalent in past jesu recordings
and brought to the fore elements of texture and melody that previously hovered at the periphery of his monolithic compositions. While this may
prove frustrating to metal idealists, those with a greater sense of adventure will find the the results both illuminating and heart rending.
TRACKLISTING: 01. farewell 02. blind and faithless 03. why are we not perfect 04. farewell (alternative version) 05. why are we not perfect (alternative version)
“And Jesu does indeed come off like therapy through sound, as lying under the surface of these bleak dirges lies an elegiac subcurrent than can be
as uplifting as the angelic hymns of Sigur Rós. In fact, that Icelandic band's soothing soundscapes can be seen as the yin to Jesu's yang, the light
to Jesu's dark, the white angel wings to Jesu's black pits of the underworld.” – Allmusic Guide

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