“We should feel privileged to be allowed to listen” Album Review: Jetplane Landing - Once Like A Spark

Once Like A Spark, Jetplane Landing's follow-up to their critically acclaimed (and brilliant) debut, Zero For Conduct, begins with a riff heavier than a small herd of elephants. Seriously. Even at medium volume, the floorboards thud and vibrations travel up through your feet to pound recklessly and powerfully on your heart. And that's just the first few seconds.

It would be an exaggeration to say that the album continues exclusively in this vein for its forty minute duration, but it comes pretty damn close - from beginning to end, these are eleven in-your-face, urgent, unrelenting songs, as lyrically eloquent, incisive, verbose and touching as ever, and full of an energy, rage and passion that is both astonishing and overwhelming. Quite how the band manage to perform these songs live (or, for that matter, on record) without dropping dead is a miracle - at points on both Conventional Thought and We Need To Effect A Change, singer Andrew Ferris' voice sounds like it's going to burst through his throat and kill him.

All of which combines to make Once Like A Spark not only a worthy follow-up to its predecessor, but also one of the most vital releases of 2003. It is, frankly, an incredible fistfuck of an album - hardcore, intense and powerful but also tender, rewarding and immensely enjoyable. Jetplane Landing are a band with a hell of a lot to say and one hell of a way to say it. We should feel privileged to be allowed to listen.

© Backlash Magazine 2003