It seems that New York’s Jonny Lives! is torn between what they want to be and what they actually are. Hailing from the same scene as The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Mooney Suzuki, the band wants to be that brand of gritty, 1960s-influenced garage rock that the aforementioned groups reference so well. But Jonny Lives!, it turns out, is a glossy, 1990s-influenced guitar-pop band. Not that that’s a bad thing, but with critics on both sides of the Atlantic praising the group as the next Iggy and the Stooges, the hype can be misleading. Their first album begins well enough, with the band’s unquestionable talents for melody and punchy rhythms on full display on the verses of “No Good.” The verse gives way, however, to a chorus that borders on modern teen pop-punk. The entire album is more or less structured this way, with a few notable exceptions. The title track is a classic party ballad, and with frontman Jonny Dubowsky proclaiming a la T.-Rex “I’m an anaconda / I slither as I slide” against distorted riffs, or crooning against Motown vocal group harmonies on “Lost My Mind,” we are given a brief glimpse into how good this band could actually be. The best track is the ironically titled “B-side”; the guitar solos descend melodically and are actually audible over the rest of the mix. Simply, Jonny Lives! is a great band that has yet to prove it.
~ Caroline Evans
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