Although the accompanying press release goes to some pains to explain that this time JESSE MALIN vacated the familiar means streets of his native New York City to record his third album in the sunshine glare of Los Angeles, one thing seems plain: you can take the man out of New York, but you can't take New York out of the man. For 'Glitter In The Gutter' is every bit as saturated in the details, minutiae and romanticism of the city that this singer/ songwriter has made his own in such an effective way that will surely see him referred to in the same breath as the likes of Lou Reed and Martin Scorsese in years to come.
Elaborate claims for sure, but with 'Glitter In The Gutter' this hard-bitten singer/ songwriter has delivered his third consistently excellent - and best - album to date. OK, it's a help for any gritty, disaffected tunesmith if he can check through his address book and come up with names like Ryan Adams, Chris Shiflett, Josh Homme, Jakob Dylan and (no kidding) Bruce Springsteen, but despite star turns from them all (more on this subject soon) these are quality self-penned tunes (with one notable exception) that will have the best of us returning to wallow over and over again.
Actually, one thing we need to clear up quickly is that a couple of these songs were laid down in NYC. The crunchy, propulsive 'In The Modern World' is the first of a brace of hard-edged, 4/4 rockers here and finds long-term buddy Ryan Adams adding coruscating guitars. Not for the first or last time, there's more than a whiff or two of The Replacements at their best emanating from it, but the other Noo Yoik-recorded tune, the crestfallen, but lovely 'Aftermath' (again with Adams on guitar, organ and piano and weeping with strings) is from the other end of the spectrum and shows us once again that Malin can pen and execute a truly resonant tear-jerker with the best of them.
The rest of it WAS laid down in LA, but in all but name we might as well still be downtown at Electric Lady for these wonderfully scarred, but defiant rock'n'roll songs are still tattooed with references to Malin's familiar stamping ground. The bloodied, but unbowed 'Love Streams' refers to Malin's childhood soaking up cinema "with Lenny Bruce and young Joe Buck" (Jon Voight's star-crossed lothario/ loser in the great 'Midnight Cowboy'); the quintessential, lost-in-the-rock'n'roll-thrill-of-it-all Malin of 'Tomorrow Tonight' finds our hero wanting to be "counted in like Dee Dee Ramone/ staying alive when you're 25" and the inevitable 'New York Nights' comes on like the most tremendous cross between prime Springsteen and the Tindersticks' 'City Sickness' and features the emotive lines "from the desert to this love-stained town/ I still find comfort in the undergound/ it's written in my soul" and has you grasping for adjectives like 'cinematic' quicker than you can say Greg Dulli.
Fantastically, though, while New York runs continually through Jesse Maln's veins, these songs of experience, disappointment, elation, love and more experience are so strong that you can't fail to connect with them whether you're from Clacton or Kamchatka. More often than not, 'Glitter In The Gutter' rocks hard when Jesse ushers his guests into the studio. Songs like 'Little Star', 'In The Modern World' (both featuring Ryan Adams) and 'Prisoners Of Paradise' (where Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett provides the six-string pizzazz) are classic, four-square rockers redolent of the best moments of albums like 'Give 'Em Enough Rope', 'Too Tough To Die' or The Replacements' 'Let It Be', while 'Prisoners Of Paradise' even displays Malin's love of perennial US power-pop by aping the main riff from The Knack's 'My Sharona'. Clearly, Malin has taken a leaf from Noel Gallagher's 'talent borrows, genius steals' memo book and has run heroically with the ball here.
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Intriguingly, though, 'Glitter In The Gutter' is perhaps at its' absolute best when Malin stows the rifferama for a while. The record's one cover is (aptly) an unadorned, piano and vocal take of The Replacements' 'Bastards Of Young' and reminds you just how marvellous Malin has been when giving similiarly heart-rending treatments to songs like Graham Parker's '3 Martini Lunch' and The Clash's 'Death Or Glory'. Actually, it's hard to imagine there could be a more moving moment this year than hearing Malin sob through the lines "the ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please" from this under-rated Westerberg classic. Having said that, Malin's own 'Broken Radio' runs it hugely close: driven along by Christine Smith's stately piano, strings and a gorgeously poised band performance, topped off by a Malin/ Springsteen due that simply aches. The chorus ("The angels love you more than you know/ raised on robbery and rock'n'roll/ moving to the Motor City soul") will eat into your bones, you'll cry copiously and be dying to play it all again. It's this album's 'Brooklyn' or 'Basement Home' and quite possibly better than either/ both. Oh, and as dignified exits go, 'Aftermath' ain't exactly an under-achiever either.
A hard-working ethic, consistently fine, raw and emotive songwriting and an ability to outlive easy-peasy 'singer/ songwriter' tags have served Jesse Malin well. Indeed, despite the NYC homesickness displayed on the catchy 'Lucinda' ("Summer's fadin' and California seems so cold"), his west coast sojourn has done him proud and instead of falling prey to those cliched 'difficult' third album vibes, he's upped his personal ante, called on a little help from his friends and presented us with a superb album which not only stares up at the stars from the gutter but wholeheartedly embraces them too.
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