Jane N’ The Jungle showcase the intensity and creativity of their dark alternative rock sound on their excellent new EP Life of the Party
Having built a fiercely deserved reputation as a distinctive alternative rock sound with a fervent cutting edge, Jane N’ The Jungle have been making waves over the last few years, releasing a litany of expansive and unique singles that continue to hammer home their emphatic appeal and charismatic allure. 2024 has seen the band release their latest EP Life of the Party, a new collection of tracks to reinforce their staying power in the modern alternative scene.
The EP opens with ‘Dirty Dog’, a harrowingly dark track about sexual assault that is met with sleazy riffs and a unabashed attitude that holds nothing back. The intensity of the lyrics and sound set the tone for the EP in powerful fashion, immediately letting listeners know what they’re in store for here, and providing a piece of art that feels as atmospheric and foreboding as it is an irresistible slice of alternative rock.
This abrasive darkness is then traded for a more clean cut rock and roll sound on the follow up ‘Metal Ghost’, a track that showcases some of the more soaring capabilities of Jordan White’s vocals. The powerful tone of the artist’s voice and the engrossing riffs of Brian Dellis’s guitars compliment each other seamlessly on this track, making for a sound that feels both nostalgic yet refreshingly modern.
Their most expansive and intense sensibilities come to the fore on ‘Wasteland’, a track that melds genres like punk, metal and alternative rock with relative ease, building up an aura and sense of tension that feels palpable. Lyrically, the track explores a toxic relationship and the realisation of feeling trapped with nowhere to go, and this feeling is captured in atmospheric and brooding fashion.
The anthemic ‘Cut Me Open’ is a track that feels instantly memorable and captivating, with an almost Placebo-like feel to the vocal delivery and the monstrously catchy chorus. The hard hitting and engrossing nature of the track makes for one of the more obvious highlights of an EP that is absolutely saturated full of them. This track is Jane N’ The Jungle at their rousing, undeniable, intoxicating best.
‘Bed of Roses’ follows, and is thankfully not a Bon Jovi cover. Instead, the track sees the outfit continue to experiment and explore the confines of their sound, taking measures with things like the unpredictable vocal style and dark instrumental to make the track feel disconcerting and unsettling at every turn. Jane N’ The Jungle have this really great uniqueness to their sound and sense of character and personality that means that even when they do something daring and different you can still feel their essence on the track throughout.
The album closes with its title track, an intense and transfixing track that explores the multiple realms that addiction can exist in, even the form of becoming someone’s drug and the thing that they crave. This kind of murky and uncomfortable subject matter is something that Jane N’ The Jungle continue to revel in stylistically, with their intense sound providing the perfect mirror to such darkness.
Life of the Party is a stellar EP that has pretty much no filler or fat on it whatsoever, every track submerges us into a new theme or narrative that feels as harrowing and often insidious as the last, feeling distinctive and memorable but while injected with instantly recognisable Jane N’ The Jungle DNA. The EP could well prove to be a defining moment for the band, and is packed full of what feels like exactly what their sound should be.
