Taking their raw, sleazy, punk inspired attitude to a whole new level, Swedish born, but now Los Angeles based Vains Of Jenna deliver their ball tearing 2nd studio album ‘The Art Of Telling Lies’. Since their debut album ‘Lit Up-Let Down’ the growth in the band both musically and from a songwriting point of view is significant and can largely be attributed to the hundreds of shows the band has played throughout both the USA and Europe in between albums.
Opening track ‘Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead’ is a four to the floor rocker featuring musically everything Vains Of Jenna fans would be familiar with from the band. Albeit with a slightly more polished and fuller big rock sound courtesy of producer Brent Woods (former member of Wildside and Vince Neil Band). A cracking way to start off the album!
Just two songs in is all it took for lead singer Lizzy DeVine to stamp his authority on the CD with his snarling vocals. On ‘Mind Pollution’ hear him tear through the chorus lines of “I wanna break free, this shit is killing me” to hear what I am talking about and then wait for the 2.26minute mark if you are still not convinced! Whilst the song adopts the quiet verse, loud verse kind of approach of modern rock, the track is one of the most aggressive on the CD.
Tackling the Tom Petty classic ‘Refugee’, a song that is no stranger to the bands live set, the band stay faithful to the original and turn it into the harder edged rock song I realise it has been crying out for, importantly without giving it the full blown punk rock attitude! With massive chorus vocal chants and an infectious little guitar melody line, ‘I Belong To Yesterday’ is another modern rock styled track with some nice pop sensibilities.
‘Paper Heart’ and ‘Better Off Alone’ scale things back a bit and these “epics” see the band displaying just how far they have come in terms of songwriting, song structure and musicianship with every member getting their opportunity to shine on these songs. These tracks are certainly not “power ballads” and actually remind me of a modern day Tesla epic type song, which for me is due to the vocals of Lizzy DeVine at times reminding of Tesla's Jeff Keith's soaring raspiness.
‘Get It On’ does just that with it's foot stomping riffs and kick ass punkish attitude and is no doubt a song that will set the crowd into a frenzy at a live show. The single ‘Enemy In Me’ may be familiar to many of you with it having appeared on MTV’s Jackass and Kat Von D’s ‘LA Ink’ TV shows. It's time to change things up a bit with the funky verses of ‘I Dont Care’ which lyrically is a nice segue into the title and closing track ‘The Art Of Telling Lies’ a song inspired by the concept of too many people in the world these days using the art of telling lies in their lives.
For a band who well and truly know and live the “long way to the top if you wanna rock n roll” ethos, Vains Of Jenna have certainly delivered the album that should announce them to the wider world of ROCK!
You can check out our feature interview with the bands drummer, Jacki Stone right HERE!!!
