THE JEZABELS – SHE’S SO HARD EP
The Jezabels have developed a something of a following this year, and it isn’t difficult to imagine why. The strength of their debut EP The Man is Dead and the catchy single-cut Disco Biscuit Love established their brand and a distinctive accompanying sound: Haley’s strong, malleable voice right up front, pounding piano, lots of reverb and thundering drums. Like The Man is Dead, She’s So Hard is an easy-to-swallow, five-song package, and works to the same strengths. In fact, She’s So Hard sounds so similar one could put the two EPs together and come out with a pretty great album. What has developed are the band’s arrangements, which are less post-pop, and more on the ‘atmospheric rock’ side – one wonders, for instance, whether they’ve been listening to Eno’s Brit-pop project, James. But the production compliments the songs perfectly. Easy To Love, for instance, plays the full band tumult off against the delicate combo of voice-and-piano before the inevitable climax; similarly, the opening cut Hurt Me begins with atmospheric piano-and-guitar combo, and builds it up from there. Everything this band does exudes emotional intelligence: the songs have it in spades, from the lyrics to the drum fills. But that’s no more and no less than we’ve come to expect from this excellent Sydney outfit.
***1/2
