“All you want to do is press play again” Album Review: Jetplane Landing - Once Like A Spark

Touring for months on end does not make you a good band, sure you can hone songs and your live performance, but you need great songs to start with otherwise you are merely flogging a dead horse.

Jetplane Landing can’t like being at home. After undertaking a tour so long that it would have seen lesser bands collapse, as well as playing gigs everywhere from Aberdeen to our very own Winchester, you can not have anything but the greatest admiration for them. However, as mentioned before, this is all pointless unless you have great songs. Luckily great songs are one of Jetplane’s strengths and this is more than evident on their recently released album ‘Once Like A Spark’. This record is a little harder than their equally stunning debut, and starts as it means to go on with the gripping ‘The Violence’. With its heavy opening riff and vocals that lie somewhere between shouting and screaming there can be no questions as to their intent.

The single ‘Calculate the Risk’ is an equally immense song with raw guitars and a thundering bass that is impossible to avoid tapping your foot to. The album’s greatest moment is undoubtedly saved until last with the pummelling (if a little long titled) ‘There Is No Real Courage Unless There Is Real Danger’. This is the sort of song that you want to play on your stereo with the volume cranked to max, and with the sort of riff that most bands would die for, it is nothing short of astounding. ‘Once Like a Spark’ is an absolutely stunning album and when it finishes you feel out of breath, but all you want to do is press play again. Along with bands like Reuben and Million Dead, Jetplane Landing remain a crucial part of UK underground scene and long may they continue.

5/5

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