Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
If you really want to know how to get out of the rat race and restore your own life balance, to plan The Great Escape and inspire others to see that world needs more loose cannons willing to express the disaffection of their souls whilst proudly, and ferociously, offering ways to lighten the mood and find a way to rock in the best traditions of AC/DC or Airbourne, then it might just fall to the four riders of the new Aussie-calypse to provide the combined measure of the fight response that breaking free from the self-placed chains produces.
Jailbirds’ Axel McDonald, Ed Orr, Jamie Trimble, Jay McDonald not only express themselves across their debut album, The Great Escape, with endearing style, they embody a spirit of the initial pioneers who found a way to pound with heat and direction, with muscles blazing, at a system which never seems to want to appreciate just how just and important praise is when dealing with those putting their souls on the line.
Talent is not just inherited from direct descendants, it is passed down in the very beating heart of those who have influenced you, the D.N.A. of a culture that nurtures you, bleeds for you and for the Australian-Irish, Dublin-based band, perhaps it is that double grouping that the fierce independent spirit breaks through, that is ready to snap at the heels of those that dare continue to suggest that there is no new Rock sound worth exploring; and when they have finished snapping, take an enormous bite out of the behind of those who continuously talk through it.
Whether it is in the opening of the album’s title track, or through the sheer pleasure received from listening to Nothing Good Lasts Forever, Shadow of Love, the superb Thrill Of The Chase, or the cool finish that greets The Pilot, the challenges that are faced by anyone who dares to place a well-earned and bold couple of fingers up to a society that unapologetically stamps on the face of those holding on for dear life, knowing full that their message is concise and meaningful enough to be heard, is to be cherished.
The Great Escape is not from life, but from the powers that dictate endless ignorance, only when we achieve freedom from this cycle of exploitation and manipulation can we say life is there to be lived.
Jailbirds’ The Great Escape is out now and available from Golden Robot Records.
Ian D. Hall