Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Some albums jump straight out at you from the opening note and make you sit down in almost startled amazement. In Jonny Lang’s first album for seven years, the tormenting and incredible sound that encapsulates Fight For My Soul, the feeling of bewildered admiration is compounded by thought of time having passed by.
What Fight For My Soul achieves, even upon first listen, is to capture the past and make it relevant to his life today, the sound of the eager and determined young man tussling with a man whose life experience has changed his outlook on his priorities. It is a tussle that is divine and the overall effect on each song is one of vibrancy, of unashamed texture and boundless energy. Even on the best of albums, the consistency that holds it all together can feel odd and the links with some tracks being slightly out of phase with the overall quality, not so with Fight For My Soul, each song leads perfectly on to the next with no scratching of heads in between.
Once the listener has got over the startling realisation that this young man has been away for what seems an interminable age, the music soon takes over, so much so that it might be the best thing you do for a while in listening to the opening track of Blew Up (The House) and then instantly replaying it just to get you straight into the mood properly. It might seem a convoluted way of enjoying an album but it’s worth it, for the brilliant revelation that Jonny Lang weaves for his fans throughout is not so much a secret but a beautiful reminder of what the musician is capable of.
Songs such as the fantastic What You’re Looking For, The Truth and the album title track of Fight For My Soul all lay the foundations for was is in consideration, a tremendous welcome return for a musician who has been away far too long. His life may have taken a different turn to what he expected at the tender age of 16 but none of the youthful guile has been lost in the years that he has been away from the public eye.
Jonny Lang will be performing to a now completely sold-out audience at the London Borderline on October 3rd . Fight For My Soul is released on September 2nd on Provogue Records.
Ian D. Hall