Toronto hard rock outfit J’Nai
fits this description quite well. They are among the flock of newer bands that
feature all men on instruments, fronted by a woman. Having been together for
just over a year, they’ve already made a name for themselves as an opening act
for such classic rock talent as Vince Neil ,
Uli Jon Roth, Michael Schenker, Queensryche and the list continues. In their year as a band,
they’ve released a 7 song EP filled with songs that are almost as energetic as
their live shows.
The first track gets right in to it. No corny intro, Skipping Stones just gets straight in
to rocking with the songs chorus. When you first hear lead singer Jeanette
Ricasio’s voice, you get the idea that she has a lot of strong influence from a
range of different musicians. For instance, her Ozzy Osbourne-like ability to sing along with the guitar riffs of
the chorus to make the song seem even more like it’s an anthem, but doesn’t shy
away from using the more melodic and soothing side of her voice in the
pre-chorus. The song as a whole gives any listener a good idea of the
capabilities of the band and is a great opener.
Songs like Accident
make the album unique. Just when you think the band is nothing more than just a
hard rock act, maybe for just the classic rock nostalgic, they pull out a track
such as this one that has strong alternative influence, almost gothic even,
with an almost Evanescence sound,
with its spooky verses and by mixing some electronic elements in the background.
But at its heart it is still a hard rock song, with a killer throat busting chorus.
Defeat Them
All has other elements of alternative influence. The vocals
sound like it could be a Paramore
song, just with more distorted music to accompany the voice. The bridge of this
song sounds like it could have been out of an 80’s New Wave of British Heavy
Metal album, continuing the diverseness of the album. Away From You, heard later on the album, features a similar
description. It mixes alternative influence with classic rock influence, this
time sounding more like an 80’s hard rock song from bands like Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow in their
later days or Yngwie Malmsteen minus
the shredding.
The album gets right back in to its classic hard rock sound
with In The Light. This track starts
off strong and loud, like a song that could be played in an arena, topped off
with the consistent clapping sound in the background throughout the song. Like
so many other songs on the album, the verses of the song are sung soft and in
an almost creepy fashion, but the song returns to its arena sound in its
choruses.
The album ends on an electronic note. Share My Life has a lot of electronic experimenting to it. Not so
much like Evanescence this time. This time around the song has almost all
electronic features to it. It’s hard to tell if the drums you are hearing are
really drums or are being fed through a machine, but the song has a killer
guitar solo. Killer is actually an understatement. This continues on to the
final track, Everyday. It isn’t
certain what instruments are in fact being played and what is being put through
a computer, BUT the song is unique one. It’s not hard rock, it sounds more like
pop-rock, which with this being just the first EP released by the band, it is
really just their way of showing the diverseness in their sound. I would
compare this songs style very much to the style of Roxette...just with chipmunk vocals heard every now and then.
The end result is a terrific effort by an up and coming band.
All seven songs are completely different from one another, which causes for
some inconsistency in the sense that if you were to hear just one song you
would get the wrong idea of the band. You’d have to listen to the whole album
to get a proper idea of the band’s sound. If you live in the Toronto area, I’d
suggest checking out their live shows. They put everything they have in to
their shows and more. Get their album on iTunes or from one of their shows, it shows a lot of promise.
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
“Defeat Them All” This song displays the
most talent from a song writing perspective. Though it holds its influences on
its sleeve, the band puts every bit of their own sound in to every note that is
played. Jeanette puts forward her best vocal performance. She doesn’t hit all
of the pitches that she’s capable of, but to be a good singer, you don’t have
to always sing loud. In this case, it’s her melodic capabilities and her
intelligence behind how she uses her voice in the verses, chorus and the
bridge. Musically, the song may be a slower pace, but it’s heavy enough to
please any hard rock fan, while still appealing to fans of other genres of rock
such as alternative.
FINAL RATING
7.5 (Out of 10)
Track List:
1.
|
"Skipping Stones"
|
3:26
|
2.
|
"Accident"
|
4:20
|
3.
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"Defeat Them All"
|
4:03
|
4.
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"In The Light"
|
4:14
|
5.
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"Away From You"
|
3:33
|
6.
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"Share My Life"
|
3:09
|
7.
|
"Everyday"
|
3:20
|
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