Recent transplant to Seattle, New Zealand born singer songwriter Fleur Jack found herself in the world of her teenage dreams, namely the land of “grunge rock of the 90’s,” and one of its holiest shrines the vaunted London Bridge Studios. Previously she had toured in America, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong and released two albums as Fleur Jack & The Jandals and two others as the lead vocalist, bassist & writer for rock band “The Twitch”, who placed 2nd in the 2005 International Battle of the Bands World Final.
Now was the time to break out on her own, but as she put it “getting a session at the studio is easy enough, but being one of the top studios, it isn’t cheap to record there.” Fleur turned to crowd funding resource Indiegogo and successfully launched a campaign to finance the recording at London Bridge with producer Justin Davis, the result is her new EP Tales From The Dodge.
The modest six song collection takes full advantage of the large room acoustics London Bridge is known for, surrounding Fleur’s strong alto with ringing guitars and spacious percussion. The album kick off with the big jangly guitar road trip “Coin,” that has hints of early 90’s alt rock icon’s U2 and Icehouse. Gritty mandolin from her partner Wesley Wood adds clever counter point to the driving guitar on the prophetic rocker “God and his Motorbike.”
The album then downshifts to a more alt country acoustic mode, but doesn’t lose its pop sensibility. The rollicking “Getting Better at Being Alone,” has just a touch of Beatles influence, and the lilting “Lullaby,” goes straight for the country two-step with a tale of desperate love. Drummer Morgan Smith keeps the train beat rolling along with the clean guitar picking on “Ry’s Song.” You can feel the dust from the long road on the classic styled “Slice of Home,” with its easy sing along chorus.
With Tales From the Dodge, Fleur Jack has made a sure footed step toward realizing her American dream and following the path of her heroes.
Rick J Bowen
