Somewhere between The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde and Heart’s Ann Wilson lies Hayley Mary, the lead singer for The Jezabels. It is a nice place to be, especially when your band writes incredible lyrics and ably backs your beautiful, soon to be iconic, voice.
The Jezabels are Aussies whose most recent release, Dark Storm, is the final five track EP in a trilogy that includes 2009 EP releases of “The Man Is Dead” and “She's So Hard.” Mary, along with guitarist Sam Lockwood, drummer Nik Kaloper and keyboardist Heather Shannon co-write The Jezabels’ material and do it extremely well. It is a distinguishing feature of this band. For example, visualize this imagery in the EP’s namesake song “Dark Storm:”
Bright white Cockatoo, baby how I ponder your shadow. How you rip me off my feet, rape me of my time to sleep shallow. And from the sky, she speaks to me and, through her melody, lingers. I said, :No, I don’t want your love, no, I don’t care anymore, Finger.
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The second song, “Mace Spray,” has gotten all the press as the “standout” song on the EP. It has an exciting swell of instruments and pop sensibility. Still, it is the combination Mary’s voice and the lyrics that make this band special. Check out these lines:
There’s a place in the town, a statue, she’d make me wait beneath, but its magnificent archways, archways, that’s where I’d go to weep. I’m right up onto the counter, showgirl, perfect the slow body-roll. And break away from the anger, oh hoe, just got to let it all go.
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“Sahara Mahala” is the least accessible song on the EP. It reminded me of something the 18th century writer of the poem “Kubla Khan,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge, would have written after an opium-induced dream if he had chosen to express himself in lyric rather than poem.
“A Little Piece” is a brooding, building piece of sorrowful, then powerful, orchestration. Mary is again blessed with singing wonderful lyrics:
. . . Biting cold, thrashing, scolding, drown me under our street. Perfect hips, perfect hips she was, perfect lips, pieces of your heart splattered on the cliff. We go home watch a movie. Tell me can you feel the beat? Getting loose, getting loose she was, letting those feeling loose, she was, becoming a monster.
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The final song on the EP is “She’s So Hard.” In my opinion it is better than “Mace Spray.” Here, Mary sings a much more rhythmical and catchy tune with the band set on making this one the most accessible. It is magical combination of beat, pop hook, and voice. Yet, it also contains amazing lyrics:
I will go out, steal birthday cakes from babyface. I will go out, steal the piñata, if I wanna. All that really matters is love, but, if it’s all you really care about, then tough, I’m all out, for the war. I guess love wasn’t what I was looking for.
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Ultimately, The Jezabels are evolving from their humble beginnings in a 2007 Sydney University Band Competition. They are on the right track. With Mary’s voice and the bands’ writing a large following cannot be far off.
- Old School
buy here: Dark Storm
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