Search - Jale :: So Wound

So Divine...

Kendall Bell | Willingboro, NJ USA | 06/22/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Being part of the underground is a rough gig. The Halifax, Nova Scotia band Jale are all too well aware of this. Plugging away for years and touring incessantly still hasn't brought them much success, but the time passed has provided for some very good music. While not extraordinary, or even essential on first listen, Jale still manages to make the listener hit the repeat button on their cd player. How? By making music that is, in its simplest form, irresistible. Opening with a rocking blast of a song about a girl who's busy seeing the world ('Ali'), Jale starts your toes tapping. 'Hey Hey' moves the head from side to side from the opening notes and becomes a 'driving on the highway' sing-a-long song. On 'All Ready', they sing 'my heart's all ready to break', and STILL keep your toes a tappin'. For Jale, it's simply not solely about lyrics. It's about rocking your pants off from time to time and making your head sway from side to side in complete adoration. Jale makes catchy pop/rock songs: something most of the music world has forgotten how to do. Sometimes, it's sublime to be unprofound. 'So Wound' is pop perfection."

An almost forgotten pure pop delight

Pedro A. Urias | Phoenix, Az United States | 03/31/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's a shame what has happened to this disc. Despite years of touring, this one never quite made the dent into the public consciousness that it deserved to. Maybe too catchy for some and not overtly politically conscious for others? Perhaps being from Halifax, Nova Scotia has something to do with it. Maybe the absence of fuzzed-out guitar omnipresent on the last disc has something to do with it. Who knows, but the music on this album is decidely sweet, pure power-pop the way few have ever done it--and it's unabashedly romantic, to boot, which nowadays in the music world, is an almost lethal gamble. But somehow, they pull it off. Everyone single member of the band contributes to the songwriting, and despite this it feels like a congealed effort, not something all over the map and messy like one would expect. It starts off with the power pop of "Ali" a song longing for the return of a friend (or small child, judging from the lyrics) and never relents for the energy (except for "Signs of Life", which is too languid for the pace of this album, but at least the song isn't terrible...). The standouts are the aforementioned "Ali", "Hey, Hey", "All Ready" (the best "let's break up because you are a jerk" song ever...)and "Tumble". You need this..you'll find this infectious as the common cold, but you'll feel better afterwards...."

Totally infectious!

redstonerocks | Halifax, N.S. | 06/04/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album is insanely catchy. The melodies will stick in your head for days (and it's not a bad thing). So Wound really benefits from having three different songwriters, because there's plenty of variety without the band sounding too disparate. I particularly liked Laura Stein's punk influence, which was offset nicely by Jennifer Pierce's and Eve Hartling's jangly pop melodies. Standout tracks: Ali, All Ready, Mosquito, and Over You.The only bad thing I can think off about So Wound is the lyrical clumsiness that bogs some of the tracks down (Hey Hey is a bit too sappy for a love-gone-awry tune, for instance). Otherwise, the album's loaded with gems."