Standing Over By The Record Machine: Joan Jett & The Blackhearts’ Mindsets will change yours’, loudly.
The digital EP – her first new music since 2018 – exemplifies rock ‘n’ roll, played properly.
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts 2023: (l-r) bassist Hal Selzer, the living breathing definition of rock ‘n’ roll herself, drummer Michael McDermott, and lead guitarist Dougie Needles.
JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS – Mindsets digital EP [Blackheart Records]
“Joan Jett doesn’t play rock ‘n’ roll,” I wrote in an Austin Chronicle live review from SXSW 2019. “Joan Jett is rock & roll.”
It’s true. She’s Keith Richards. She’s Little Richard. She’s Johnny Thunders. She’s all four Ramones in one tiny host body.
Not only that, she’s cooler than all of them combined. She also wears a black leather jacket better than them all, to boot, and she’s history’s greatest eyeliner smudger.
To watch Joan Jett and her Blackhearts live is to attend a Sunday morning service at the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church Of Rock ‘N’ Roll. It’s an evening of sweat, black leather, roaring guitar crunch, slamming drums, sugary melodies, big singalong choruses and hits galore. True, some of her biggest chartsmashers were written by others, including "I Love Rock 'n' Roll." But she makes them her own – there are generations who do not recognize “Crimson And Clover” as a Tommy James & The Shondells track. Her own compositions – “Bad Reputation,” anyone? – are as catchy and anthemic as those covers, so all her music is of a piece. It’s because she was as informed by vintage glam rock and bubblegum as by the Ramones or Rolling Stones. JJ&TB records contain more overdriven Gibson guitar raunch per square inch than anything else you could think of. But they all subscribe to the embroidered tapestry hanging on the walls of both glam’s and bubblegum’s living rooms: “Don’t bore us – get to the chorus!”
So, now that we’ve established Joan Jett preaches the rock ‘n’ roll gospel, is it any wonder her new EP Mindsets is full of good news?
Keeping a virtually non-stop touring schedule seems to ensure new studio full-lengths are few and far between. Jett & The Blackhearts have released 13 studio LPs across a 42 year career. One was a covers album, The Hit List. Last year’s Changeup was a lively set of acoustic rearrangements of some of her greatest hits and major classics from across her career. I suspect this is down to quality control – she and longtime musical/business partner Kenny Laguna probably do not book a studio until they have a solid set of new originals ready to be recorded. And it can be difficult carving out time to sit down with your guitar, pen, notepad and a 4-track recorder and work some ideas out, when you’re a veteran road dog who spends most of her life on tour. So Mindsets, issued just a little over a month ago by her Blackheart Records, is as welcome as dunking your head into and drinking deeply of a fresh mountain spring, after crawling through a desert for several years.
Six new originals, with five co-written by Jett and Blackhearts lead guitarist Dougie Needles, and the countryish acoustic ballad “Whiskey Goes Good” being a solo Needles composition. The average time: Three minutes. Jett, Laguna, and equally longtime recordist Thom Panunzio produce Mindsets with brutal clarity. Every track but “Whiskey” crunches hard and sweet, like biting down on a mouthful of Pop Rocks candy. Every note is clear, every instrument in its own space sonically. There’s a lot of midrange sparkle in the EQ department, which cuts through any possible auditory mud like a stiletto heated to 123 degrees ripping through a field of frozen butter. And it’s all mastered to be played LOUD!!
From the upbeat opener "If You're Blue" to rousing closer "(Make The Music Go) Boom," Mindsets feels like a long pep talk from a dear friend. Indeed, Jett has remarked, “The last several years have been tough ones on the whole world. These songs reflect the various ‘mindsets’ needed to make it through the day, the week, the year, or the next minute. It’s a way to feel more connected to that big, beautiful, scary world out there, and in your head.”
“If You’re Blue” particularly has the feel of Jett draping her arm around your shoulder and assuring you she is that friend you can call at 2AM, when all feels lost: “I'm tired of frustration and aggravation I'm tryin' to clear my mind/But the night rolls on into the dawn let's leave the tears behind.” There’s even a touch of that “Bad Reputation” defiance we all love: “Now I made mistakes I can't erase, I won't deny/I made my own rules they don't teach in schools/And that's what I live by.” Then it’s set to a riff the 1978 Clash would have killed to have written.
"Rear View Mirror" is equally Give ‘Em Enough Rope in its attack, as Jett urges a former love to leave painful memories behind: “In my dream we get along instead/No more wanting each other dead ‘cause the/Thunder’s gone, you can let your fears be said/Don’t push ‘em down, put ‘em to bed.” The closing track, "(Make the Music Go) Boom," celebrates the redemptive power of rock ‘n’ roll played properly, to push us all further when all feels lost: “Tune up and show ‘em all/What it’s like to be unstoppable…It’s gonna be alright/Just stay in tune, and make the music go boom.” But before she arrives at that advice, she tells us, “I see you and what you been through/Oh, I hope you see me, too.”
In other words, she understands us and the shit we’ve experienced. She’s been there, herself. And she’s gonna let us see her vulnerability, her empathy and her strength. Because that’s what ultimately underlines her potency. That, and the fact that she plays the most essential, elemental rock ‘n’ roll on the planet – always has, always will.
Mindsets is no three chord Hallmark gift book of affirmations and cozy platitudes. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts have uncorked 18 minutes and five seconds of grace and real-world motivation, far grittier and more realistic than Chicken Soup For The Soul. And the music doesn’t suck, either. You can file this right alongside Bad Reputation or I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll. It will hold its own. One of the best releases of the year thus far. Thanks, Joan.
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