release date: Nov. / Dec. 1990 (?)
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: Steve Kilbey
label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 1. "Every Hour God Sends" - 4. "Geneva 4 a.m." - 6. "Providence" - 7. "Thought That I Was Over You" - 8. "Threshold" - 9. "Number Eleven" - 12. "Ramble"
Studio album debut from Australian duo-project Jack Frost founded by Steve Kilbey (front figure of The Church) and Grant McLennan (one of the main composers and lead vocalists of The Go-Betweens). The name of the project refers to the pseudonym Bob Dylan used as a producer on his latest album Under the Red Sky (1990) released a few months earlier. The story behind this perhaps uneasy pairing is that Kilbey reportedly contacted McLennan in Jul. 1990, at a time when, half a year earlier, McLennan and Robert Forster had decided to end 'their' band, The Go-Betweens. Both had then begun their respective solo careers, and Kilbey, on the other hand, had found himself in a personal crisis with obvious conflicts within The Church, and he went through a strained relationship with the group's record label, Arista, who had pushed the band's progress in a more commercial direction, although the band itself had other ideas in relation to its musical development.
The most recent album by The Church, Gold Afternoon Fix (Feb. '90) didn't turn out as succesfully as the band, and probably especially the record company, had expected. McLennan was in a position where he had ended his first and only band, a decision and an aftermath that sent him into an emotional slump when his girlfriend Amanda Brown subsequently ended their relationship. So, that's how Kilbey and McLennan met as two 'lost souls' and began this short-lived musical partnership, which led to this very debut and the 1995 follow-up Snow Job.
Jack Frost consists of thirteen tracks with a total running time at just under one hour. In addition to being credited as album producer, Kilbey is credited vocalist, guitarist, bassist, keyboards, and drummer, while McLennan is credited as vocalist, guitarist, and bassist. Along the way on the album, the two switch roles as lead vocalists, and they also [quite] apparently switch roles as songwriters without it being stated who wrote the individual tracks, as they are both credited all tracks.
However, it would be an obvious continuation of the practice McLennan was familiar with from his many years of pairing with Robert Forster in The Go-Betweens. While Kilbey / McLennan are songwriters and composers of all tracks, they have teamed up with Pryce Surplice, who is credited on drums, computers, and synthesizers without being an official member of the project. In addition, some other musicians participate, which includes Kilbey's (Swedish) girlfriend, Karin Jansson on backing vocals. The album was first released in Australia in late 1990 on the Red Eye Records label and later on Arista in early '91 for international releases - actually to positive reviews, but at the same time to very little commercial interest. Two singles were released: Tracks #1 and #7 released in Nov. '90 and Apr. '91, respectively.
Stylistically, the album falls in the box of alt. rock with elements from jangle-pop and neo-psychedelia as well as folk rock. It's in no way surprising that some songs bring memories of The Church while others point more in the direction of The Go-Betweens, but the two bands have always shared the jangle-pop element as a common starting point, even if Kilbey and McLennan have different starting points, when it comes to lyrical narratives but also the musical arrangements. In the simpler arrangements with classic melodic song structure, McLennan focuses on down-to-earth personal relationships centrered on family and love affairs, whereas Kilbey's songs generally are more complex in structure, focusing on cosmic ideas and mysticism. So even though they are both credited as songwriters and composers on all compositions, it's pretty obvious who is actual writer of the individual tracks. In this way, the album is anything but coherent, as in places it sound like the art of compromise, which nevertheless points in multiple directions.
Well, Jack Frost is both an interesting project and an album that hasn't gotten the attention it rightly deserves.
In later interviews, Kilbey - who has been open about his use of illicit drugs, which dates back to the beginning of The Church - has said that it was McLennan who introduced him to heroin and that his usage started during the recording of the songs for this first Jack Frost album.
The pair played some national concerts soon after its release, after which McLennan returned and concentrated on recording the tracks that would later result in his solo debut Watershed (Jun. 1990).
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
