I was looking through Spotify the other day and came across a playlist someone had made to celebrate the work of The Jellys.
C.J. Wildheart’s post-Honeycrack band gave us the classic “Lemonade Girl” and was perfect for my tastes at the time, which were essentially a diet of Silver Sun and Redd Kross.
In fact, back in those days (pre-internet, when things were better), you could join mailing lists by sending a postcard to a place in Leamington Spa.
Living not far away and having my first car led to and me my mate driving there once—god knows what we thought we’d find, in retrospect, but we were gutted to find one of those buildings where companies collect post.
Anyway, the point of all this—and there was one—is that “SLOTS” is cut from a similar cloth, meaning that now, as a veteran of almost 40 years in this business, it seems to come naturally to the world’s premier purveyor of hot sauce (when he’s not on stage or in the studio, of course).
“Another Big Mistake” proves some people just have a gift for melody and hooks. C.J. is one. But his solo material is more punk. A little heavier, maybe, but it’s still unmistakably him.
“Beg” underlines that extremely neatly. The lead guitar is one of those you can best describe as “lo-slung” but effortlessly cool.
Last week, a single emerged, and “The Baddest Girl In The World” is the perfect introduction to the “Slots” world. Try getting the chorus out of your head. Go on. There’s more chance of Elon Musk not being a bellend.
“Coma” is most definitely not a Guns N’ Roses cover. In and out in two and a half minutes of power-pop chug and harmony.
More than anything, whatever the lyrics might be, “Slots” sounds like a silver lining. “The Kids” reasons “the kids are better than you, forget about the past,” and in the future, there must be something brighter, surely?
It’s hard to listen to this without trying to compare it to his bands. One of which is—along with The Almighty—my favourite, and another only released one album, but it’s one of the finest ever made. But while you can hear the sound of Wild Honey, as it were, you can’t listen to work like “The City” without hearing The Pistols.
“Bent” is one that fans of the band that gave C.J. his surname will love. Sounding like a B-side from that band—always amongst their most interesting—it’s a study in laser-guided vitriol.
At the other end of the scale is the pure melody and happiness that underpins “You Got The Best Part Of Me,” while the title track crackles with energy and whether or not “the Slots will be winning” rather depends on whether you get “the drugs out of your body,” as it urges.
The anticipation that seems to categorise these songs is all the way through “I Don’t Know What It Is.”
And in so doing, it ends the record perfectly. Think of this as a sugar rush, a statement of intent, a promise of better, if you will.
That’s what CJ Wildheart has been doing recently—and just like last year’s “SPLIT,” this is an almost perfect entry into his world. With “SLOTS,” he’s hit the jackpot again.
Rating 9.5/10
