For the most part the Jack Hammer Band’s Second Chapter is pure rock ‘n’ roll shtick, replete with crunching riffs, Harley-Davidson revs, heavy drums, and guitar solos that do little more than sound really, really good.
“As I Turn Away” is punchy between melancholic verses that ponder the futility of everything, and “The Top” takes us on a road-trip through South Africa’s dorpies with “another pilgrim from a rock ‘n’ roll band.”
There are ballads like “Lamenting in the Rain” that tug predictably at the heart-strings and bluesy numbers like “Blues Home” that are inescapably gritty and infectious.
Some songs, however, stand out from the rest, either through emotional weight or musical dynamism. First and foremost is “Brown Horse”: a Guns n Roses-tinged tribute to Piet Botha filled with understated but evocative power. The lyrics tell a story of brave faces and sore hearts, a band of brothers who’ve lost their leader. They paint Botha as a highwayman taken when the fates needed him and the rest as courageously staring grief in the face because “highwaymen don’t cry” – a line whose resilience does little to cover their pain as they strum Botha’s chords around their own fire.
Then there’s “Diana,” a reworked, never-before-recorded version of a “song Piet left behind” that’s gooey and sentimental and filled with optimism. “When Diana comes/ she will run right into my arms” sings Jonathan Martin with hopeful certainty that he follows up with the relief of “That’s alright/ you will never be lonely again.”
But the first song to really explore the band’s sonic boundaries is “Anger Is Me”. Instrumentally, it strikes a starkly different course to what’s come before as it seethes and bubbles – but never boils over – with a moodiness that’s, sadly, not matched by the vocals.
Finally we have my favourite song on the album. “Wasted Time” has a hypnotic hippie-dippie psychedelia to it that sees Martin finally set his voice free to fly amid existentially weighted harmonies that give the album a soothing finality. For the most part Second Chapter is stock-standard rock ‘n’ roll but the handful of songs that stand out turn the piece into a glorious celebration of music and humanity.
Feature pic supplied by artist
