Revenge Songs Review for Contact Music 9/10!

01/04/2007 22:32:19 By jg

There are singer-songwriters who make a pleasant enough noise, and there is Jacob Golden, whose 2002 album Hallelujah World is still a quite hauntingly great listen - all exquisite melodies, perfect voice and gentle warmth. It is criminally ignored. Revenge Songs sees him back on disc after a year's recording, and still mining a great seam of soaring melody, like a gentler, more earthbound Ben Christophers, or even an on-form Jeff Buckley. There are songs to fall in love with, such as Revenge Song, and songs about love that will make you ache, such as Love You. Here, Golden's lyrics have improved even over Hallelujah World's stories - the lyrics ring more true, and more insightfully, than The Streets (Hold Your Hair Back, On A Saturday). Golden's philosophy is succinctly bound up in the words of Mark Hollis: "Before you play two notes learn how to play one note - and don't play one note unless you've got a reason to play it." Revenge Songs is all the reason imaginable. Rating 9/10 Mike Rea