JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS
''UNVARNISHED''
OCTOBER 1 2013
49:36
1 - Any Weather (606 Version)/3:22
2 - TMI/3:47
3 - Soulmates To Strangers/3:12
4 - Make It Back/3:14
5 - Hard To Grow Up/4:21
6 - Fragile/3:38
7 - Reality Mentality/3:04
8 - Bad As We Can Be/3:52
9 - Different/3:36
10 - Everybody Needs A Hero/2:30
11 - Bad Reputation (Live)/2:14
12 - Cherry Bomb (Live)/2:30
13 - TMI (Live)/3:46
14 - I Hate Myself For Loving You (Live)/5:56
Joey Basta /Bass
Regis Iandiorio /Violin
Joan Jett /Guitar, String Arrangements, Vocals
Olivia Koppell /Viola
Kenny Laguna /Keyboards, Melodica, Percussion, Vocals
Jesse Levy /Cello, String Arrangements, String Conductor
Dougie Needles /Guitar, Vocals
Thommy Price /Drums, Percussion
Gerard Reuter /Horn (English), Oboe
Michael Roth /Violin
Acey Slade /Bass
REVIEW
by Tim Sendra
Joan Jett's first album in seven years, 2013's Unvarnished, starts off with a big bang. "Any Weather," her rocked-out collaboration with Dave Grohl, sounds like a classic Blackhearts track with loud, tight guitars, a killer chorus, and Jett's growling voice front and center. It's a bracing call to arms that lets the listener know right away that Jett hasn't forgotten how to rock, not even a little. It's Grohl's only appearance on the album, but it's a perfect way to start. The rest of the record features her longtime bandmates Dougie Needles on guitar and Thommy Price on drums, plus her mentor and co-writer from the very beginning, Kenny Laguna. Their presence speaks to Jett's ability to keep her friends close, but it's also important because Unvarnished sounds like a vintage Jett album, from the handclaps to the way the guitars are recorded. Just like on her best albums from long ago, there are songs that conjure up the Glitter Band (the stomping "TMI"), simple good-time rockers ("Down the Track"), angry blasts of punk energy ("Reality Mentality"), and melancholy ballads (the sweetly sad "Soulmates to Strangers"). Delivered in classically sneering style by Jett, who sounds truly inspired and tough as nails, the songs have all the hooks and style of her classic era. The only thing that's different are the lyrics as Jett delves into matters of loss, mortality, and getting older. Sometimes a little awkwardly, but always with an endearing honesty that makes it work. For example, "Hard to Grow Up" could have sounded cliched, but Jett's sincere vocals and the huge guitar sound paste right over any lyrical concerns. The only song that lets the side down a little is the last one, "Everybody Needs a Hero." It's the only song not written by Jett, and while it's cool to hear her rough-hewn voice singing with strings backing her, the mawkish nature of the words and melody is a handicap she can't surmount. Despite this slight stumble, Unvarnished is exactly the album Jett fans have been wanting since she took an unfortunate turn toward the mainstream in the late '80s. She's done some stuff that has come close since then -- Pure and Simple had some nice moments and Sinner was a solid outing -- but this is the first time she's recaptured the sound, feel, and punch of her early work over the course of an entire record. It's not exactly a comeback, because she never went away. It's more of a rousing welcome to anyone who might have forgotten how great she was in her prime. Whatever you want to call it, Unvarnished is a great rock & roll album from a true rock & roll survivor, and if the words rock & roll mean anything to you, it's an album you need to hear.
BIOGRAPHY
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
By playing pure and simple rock & roll without making an explicit issue of her gender, Joan Jett became a figurehead for several generations of female rockers. Jett's brand of rock & roll is loud and stripped-down, yet with overpowering hooks -- a combination of the Stones' tough, sinewy image and beat, AC/DC chords, and glam rock hooks. As the numerous covers she has recorded show, she adheres both to rock tradition and breaks with it -- she plays classic three-chord rock & roll, yet she also loves the trashy elements (in particular, Gary Glitter) of it as well, and she plays with a defiant sneer. From her first band, the Runaways, through her hit-making days in the '80s with the Blackhearts right until her unexpected revival in the '90s, she hasn't changed her music, yet she's kept her quality control high, making one classic single ("I Love Rock 'n Roll") along the way.
Jett was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 12 years old. By the time she was 15, she had formed her first band and was performing around town. Kim Fowley, a Los Angeles record producer, discovered the band at one of their gigs and became their manager; soon, he renamed the all-female group the Runaways and secured them a contract with Mercury Records. The band released three albums that never had much commercial success in America, yet were very popular in Japan; the group was popular in both the Los Angeles hard rock and punk scenes, which led to Jett's production of the Germs' first record, (GI). the Runaways group broke up in 1980 and Jett moved to New York to begin a solo career.
Teaming up with producer/manager Kenny Laguna, Jett independently released her self-titled debut album in 1980 in America, since no labels were interested in signing her. The record was a more traditional rock & roll record than the punky Runaways, yet it retained her previous band's defiant attitude. The record sold very well for an independent release, leading to a contract with Boardwalk Records, who reissued the album under the title Bad Reputation; it soon climbed to number 51 on the American charts.
Jett formed the Blackhearts between Bad Reputation and her second album, 1981's I Love Rock-n-Roll; the group included guitarist Ricky Byrd, bassist Gary Ryan, and drummer Lee Crystal. Released at the end of 1981, I Love Rock-n-Roll became her greatest success, sending her into the Top Ten. Originally the B-side of an Arrows single, the title track was an enormous success, spending seven weeks at number one in the spring of 1982. The follow-up single, a version of Tommy James & the Shondells' "Crimson and Clover," went Top Ten as well; a single of Gary Glitter's "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)," taken from the Bad Reputation album, reached number 20 in the summer of 1982. Album, released in 1983, went gold yet had no hits that compared with either "I Love Rock 'n Roll" or "Crimson and Clover."
Jett starred in Paul Schrader's 1987 film Light of Day, which featured the Top 40 title song, yet she didn't have another Top Ten hit until 1988, when "I Hate Myself for Loving You," taken from the Up Your Alley album, hit number eight; the album became her second platinum record. After the album's success, her career had another slow period, with 1990's all-covers album The Hit List making it to number 36 and 1991's Notorious failing to chart. Between Notorious and 1994's Pure and Simple, a new generation of female rockers came of age and everyone from hard alternative rockers like L7 to the minimalist riot grrrl punk rockers like Bikini Kill claimed Jett and the Runaways as an influence. As a consequence, Pure and Simple received more press and positive reviews than any of her albums since the mid-'80s. In 1995, Jett recorded the live album Evilstig with the remaining members of the Gits, a Seattle punk rock band whose lead singer, Mia Zapata, was raped and murdered in 1993. Jett reunited with the Blackhearts for the 1999 album Fetish, and in 2006 Sinner, a return to her punk roots (and ten of whose 14 songs were found on the 2004 Japanese-only record Naked), came out. The next few years were spent touring with spots on the Warped Tour and as an opening act for bands like Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, and Green Day. When Jett returned with a new album, it was with touring guitarist Dougie Needles, longtime drummer Thommy Price, and even longer-time associate Kenny Laguna all on board. 2013's Unvarnished represented a stunning return to the form of the early days of the Blackhearts and featured a song produced and co-written with Dave Grohl.
2 - TMI/3:47
3 - Soulmates To Strangers/3:12
4 - Make It Back/3:14
5 - Hard To Grow Up/4:21
6 - Fragile/3:38
7 - Reality Mentality/3:04
8 - Bad As We Can Be/3:52
9 - Different/3:36
10 - Everybody Needs A Hero/2:30
11 - Bad Reputation (Live)/2:14
12 - Cherry Bomb (Live)/2:30
13 - TMI (Live)/3:46
14 - I Hate Myself For Loving You (Live)/5:56
Joey Basta /Bass
Regis Iandiorio /Violin
Joan Jett /Guitar, String Arrangements, Vocals
Olivia Koppell /Viola
Kenny Laguna /Keyboards, Melodica, Percussion, Vocals
Jesse Levy /Cello, String Arrangements, String Conductor
Dougie Needles /Guitar, Vocals
Thommy Price /Drums, Percussion
Gerard Reuter /Horn (English), Oboe
Michael Roth /Violin
Acey Slade /Bass
REVIEW
by Tim Sendra
Joan Jett's first album in seven years, 2013's Unvarnished, starts off with a big bang. "Any Weather," her rocked-out collaboration with Dave Grohl, sounds like a classic Blackhearts track with loud, tight guitars, a killer chorus, and Jett's growling voice front and center. It's a bracing call to arms that lets the listener know right away that Jett hasn't forgotten how to rock, not even a little. It's Grohl's only appearance on the album, but it's a perfect way to start. The rest of the record features her longtime bandmates Dougie Needles on guitar and Thommy Price on drums, plus her mentor and co-writer from the very beginning, Kenny Laguna. Their presence speaks to Jett's ability to keep her friends close, but it's also important because Unvarnished sounds like a vintage Jett album, from the handclaps to the way the guitars are recorded. Just like on her best albums from long ago, there are songs that conjure up the Glitter Band (the stomping "TMI"), simple good-time rockers ("Down the Track"), angry blasts of punk energy ("Reality Mentality"), and melancholy ballads (the sweetly sad "Soulmates to Strangers"). Delivered in classically sneering style by Jett, who sounds truly inspired and tough as nails, the songs have all the hooks and style of her classic era. The only thing that's different are the lyrics as Jett delves into matters of loss, mortality, and getting older. Sometimes a little awkwardly, but always with an endearing honesty that makes it work. For example, "Hard to Grow Up" could have sounded cliched, but Jett's sincere vocals and the huge guitar sound paste right over any lyrical concerns. The only song that lets the side down a little is the last one, "Everybody Needs a Hero." It's the only song not written by Jett, and while it's cool to hear her rough-hewn voice singing with strings backing her, the mawkish nature of the words and melody is a handicap she can't surmount. Despite this slight stumble, Unvarnished is exactly the album Jett fans have been wanting since she took an unfortunate turn toward the mainstream in the late '80s. She's done some stuff that has come close since then -- Pure and Simple had some nice moments and Sinner was a solid outing -- but this is the first time she's recaptured the sound, feel, and punch of her early work over the course of an entire record. It's not exactly a comeback, because she never went away. It's more of a rousing welcome to anyone who might have forgotten how great she was in her prime. Whatever you want to call it, Unvarnished is a great rock & roll album from a true rock & roll survivor, and if the words rock & roll mean anything to you, it's an album you need to hear.
BIOGRAPHY
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
By playing pure and simple rock & roll without making an explicit issue of her gender, Joan Jett became a figurehead for several generations of female rockers. Jett's brand of rock & roll is loud and stripped-down, yet with overpowering hooks -- a combination of the Stones' tough, sinewy image and beat, AC/DC chords, and glam rock hooks. As the numerous covers she has recorded show, she adheres both to rock tradition and breaks with it -- she plays classic three-chord rock & roll, yet she also loves the trashy elements (in particular, Gary Glitter) of it as well, and she plays with a defiant sneer. From her first band, the Runaways, through her hit-making days in the '80s with the Blackhearts right until her unexpected revival in the '90s, she hasn't changed her music, yet she's kept her quality control high, making one classic single ("I Love Rock 'n Roll") along the way.
Jett was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 12 years old. By the time she was 15, she had formed her first band and was performing around town. Kim Fowley, a Los Angeles record producer, discovered the band at one of their gigs and became their manager; soon, he renamed the all-female group the Runaways and secured them a contract with Mercury Records. The band released three albums that never had much commercial success in America, yet were very popular in Japan; the group was popular in both the Los Angeles hard rock and punk scenes, which led to Jett's production of the Germs' first record, (GI). the Runaways group broke up in 1980 and Jett moved to New York to begin a solo career.
Teaming up with producer/manager Kenny Laguna, Jett independently released her self-titled debut album in 1980 in America, since no labels were interested in signing her. The record was a more traditional rock & roll record than the punky Runaways, yet it retained her previous band's defiant attitude. The record sold very well for an independent release, leading to a contract with Boardwalk Records, who reissued the album under the title Bad Reputation; it soon climbed to number 51 on the American charts.
Jett formed the Blackhearts between Bad Reputation and her second album, 1981's I Love Rock-n-Roll; the group included guitarist Ricky Byrd, bassist Gary Ryan, and drummer Lee Crystal. Released at the end of 1981, I Love Rock-n-Roll became her greatest success, sending her into the Top Ten. Originally the B-side of an Arrows single, the title track was an enormous success, spending seven weeks at number one in the spring of 1982. The follow-up single, a version of Tommy James & the Shondells' "Crimson and Clover," went Top Ten as well; a single of Gary Glitter's "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)," taken from the Bad Reputation album, reached number 20 in the summer of 1982. Album, released in 1983, went gold yet had no hits that compared with either "I Love Rock 'n Roll" or "Crimson and Clover."
Jett starred in Paul Schrader's 1987 film Light of Day, which featured the Top 40 title song, yet she didn't have another Top Ten hit until 1988, when "I Hate Myself for Loving You," taken from the Up Your Alley album, hit number eight; the album became her second platinum record. After the album's success, her career had another slow period, with 1990's all-covers album The Hit List making it to number 36 and 1991's Notorious failing to chart. Between Notorious and 1994's Pure and Simple, a new generation of female rockers came of age and everyone from hard alternative rockers like L7 to the minimalist riot grrrl punk rockers like Bikini Kill claimed Jett and the Runaways as an influence. As a consequence, Pure and Simple received more press and positive reviews than any of her albums since the mid-'80s. In 1995, Jett recorded the live album Evilstig with the remaining members of the Gits, a Seattle punk rock band whose lead singer, Mia Zapata, was raped and murdered in 1993. Jett reunited with the Blackhearts for the 1999 album Fetish, and in 2006 Sinner, a return to her punk roots (and ten of whose 14 songs were found on the 2004 Japanese-only record Naked), came out. The next few years were spent touring with spots on the Warped Tour and as an opening act for bands like Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, and Green Day. When Jett returned with a new album, it was with touring guitarist Dougie Needles, longtime drummer Thommy Price, and even longer-time associate Kenny Laguna all on board. 2013's Unvarnished represented a stunning return to the form of the early days of the Blackhearts and featured a song produced and co-written with Dave Grohl.
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