He’s Dead Jim is a Scottish punk / pop / rock band, that according to their blurb, inflicted a four year Aberdonian “rammy” of trash culture and lo-fi melodic punk in the early 1980s. The band has reformed and release a new album `These Men, These Monsters` this month. This group named themselves after a line that got uttered by Dr Leonard H McCoy a character in the American science-fiction franchise Star Trek.
The release opens with `Dragonsfield` whose limited references on the net alluded to being the 26th and final episode of the first series of the British TV show The Avengers, which aired in 1961 and is now a lost episode. The song has that retro feeling of the sixties with tapped tambourine, groovy guitar riffs, organ hues, and brass tinges ending with a kind of explosive orchestrated conclusion and sounds as if the protagonists are off to take part in a counter-espionage reconnaissance. There`s a melodic feel to `Anything Can Happen Day` with some delightful harmonies. A track that refers to unpredictability where the most sensational things may happen. It has that sound of the Summer feel, a hopeful daydream or fantasy undertaken as the narrators love life seems to be falling apart. An epic in just under four minutes.
`Everybody’s Little Sister` has a beating heart and sounds like a lost sixties Northern soul classic while there`s a much more reflective power pop sense to `Living In Harmony` which at times has a Stones like swagger.
`The Process` opens with a drum cadence and is another meditative melodic nigh on orchestrated arrangement. For me there was a progressive pop rock like air to `(Here Come The) Wheels`.
`Under A Rock` is a trippy psychedelic tinged presentation and is quickly followed by `Bet On Black` which has an absorbed deep ambience and almost shimmers at times.
I first heard 10cc`s `Art For Art’s Sake` fifty years ago as a teenager where Record World called it “a spirited tour-de-force of vocal and production technique with an irresistible hook” and “a great sound” and for me the same can be said for HDJ`s version. We have another illusory listen with `Nothing To Write Home About` that had a kind of day in the life lyrical texture.
I found `Human Zoo` wonderfully trippy and a number that will have you tapping your foot at the very least. A kind of rumination on modern technology and if it`s really advanced us as a species. There was a kind of The Monkees `(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone` air about this track. `The Lovers` was pretty dreamy, an almost spoken word reflective musing.
This baker`s dozen of tracks concludes with `Negative Vibes` which evokes a bluesy garage rock ambience and leaves us with a positive assertion encouraging us to leave those destructive feelings behind.
He`s Dead Jim`s album `These Men, These Monsters` I read was referred to as a blend of fuzzy lo-fi and technicolour flourishes and it`s all that and much more. These Scottish art punkers who these days comprise Neil Christie (vocals, guitar), Allan Bell (bass, vocals), Dunsy Dunsmore (lead guitar) and Andy Milne (drums) have created a blend of multi-hued, multicoloured power pop and art rock with some interesting thoughtful lyrical content.
A welcome and joyous return for these 60s garage influenced rockers from the Granite City.
Rating 8.5/10
