“They could be heading for greatness.” Album Review: Jetplane Landing - Once Like A Spark

I first heard one of JL's songs ‘This Is Not Revolution Rock’ a couple of years ago on the radio and even then it seemed like a breath of fresh air among the posing and infantile emptiness of nu-metal then the dominant force in rock music and so on this there second full album they cement the fact that they could be heading for greatness. Most bands with a political bent never forget to bring the tunes from The Clash to  The Manic Street Preachers, Rage Against The Machine and lately System Of A Down.

Most if not all the songs on 'Once Like A Spark’ seem to be inspired by recent world events. was this done on purpose? Who knows but the album has an energy pointing towards that fact, on ‘Brave Gravity’ Andrew Ferris ponders: ‘This force and division this war of complexity if explanations were effortless lines then we’d never be ready to know.’ The whole album seems to be a calling to all those that are sick of mainstream politics And have seen the way the world is going and want to in the words of JL to ‘Effect A Change’.

In ‘I Opt Out’ Andrew despairs; ‘A country’s occupation once deemed shocking is now thought as awesome and intelligence is gathered by those that clearly have none’ the thing about this album is JL wear there influences: The Pixies, Black Flag, RATM on their sleeves and every song has a purpose and mood there are no fillers on this album. From the punk pop of ‘Conventional Thought’ to the full metal jacket barrage of ‘Calculate The Risk’ everything has it’s place on here. The final track ‘There Is No Real Courage Unless There Is Real Danger’ sums up perfectly where we are in the year 2003 ‘We stand on a precipice, an army of contradictions: self improvement; self importance; the bible of the self - We stand on a precipice balancing softly nobody move. Nobody move…’

© Southwark Student Press 2003