Album Review: The Jaded Hearts Club – You’ve Always Been Here
••• You’ve Always Been Here •••
Supergroup The Jaded Hearts Club release their debut album ‘You’ve Always Been There’ on 2nd October.
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The Jaded Hearts Club are made up of indie and Britpop royalty, featuring frontmen Miles Kane (The Last Shadow Puppets) and Nic Cester (Jet), guitarists Graham Coxon (Blur) and Jamie Davis, plus Matt Bellamy (Muse) on bass and drummer Sean Payne (The Zutons)
The band were formed in 2017 when Jamie Davis, a British guitarist living in Los Angeles who previously ran Coxon’s Transcopic Records label in England, wanted to book a Beatles covers band to play at his birthday party. The cost proved to be excessive and the available tribute acts were drab, so Davis had a back-up plan.
“I realised I knew a bunch of half-decent British musician friends living in L.A. so I thought I’d ask if they’d come together to form an early ‘60s Cavern-era Beatles band.”
They kept their plans a secret. So when family and friends turned up at the party, they were shocked to see an all-star band rampaging through a Cavern Club era Beatles set.
“The place went nuts,” smiles Davis,
“and everyone had such a good time that we decided to do it again.”
If their debut gig was a big surprise, their second raised the bar in dramatic fashion after Stella McCartney asked Bellamy if the band would play her fashion show in Los Angeles in January 2018. They arrived to see an A-list crowd gathered to see them: Quincy Jones, Katy Perry, James Corden and even Ringo Starr were in attendance. And then things took a turn for the unbelievable. Paul McCartney strolled on stage, winked at Davis and led the Hearts through ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ and ‘Helter Skelter’. In the space of just two gigs, The Beatles covers band had effectively become the surrogate Beatles.
The band then blossomed and expanded their repertoire to cover other classic British rock songs from the Sixties, the 100 Club show was a tribute to Davis’s late father, with all proceeds donated to the Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. The charity further benefited from the limited edition vinyl-only album ‘Live At The 100 Club’.
Now The Jaded Hearts Club have blossomed even further and recorded an eclectic blend of rock ‘n’ roll, pop and soul.
The album opens with a soothing but also haunting rendition of the classic Vera Lynn classic ‘We’ll Meet Again‘. Matt Bellamy of Muse brilliantly provides his wobbly, falsetto vocals to this one which instantly grabs your attention. The Vera Lynn version became a bit of an anthem during the start of lockdown, The Jaded Hearts Club use a masterstroke by opening with this track as it puts the listener in a sombre mood but after just one minute, the more positive ‘Reach Out (I’ll Be There)‘ bursts in with Jet‘s Nic Cester‘s powerhouse, growling vocals picking the listener straight back up.
Each cover is cleverly picked and perfectly complements whoever takes over on vocals, the ‘Wirral Riddler’ Miles Kane is the main man on the more Mod and Soul tunes. Miles Kane‘s first two albums were heavily influenced by the Mod and Northern Soul scene, so taking over on ‘Love’s Gone Bad‘ by Chris Clark and ‘Nobody But Me‘ sounds so natural from Kane. The 1959 Motown tune ‘Money (That’s What I Want)‘ is where Miles Kane sounds like he is having the must fun though, relishing in imitating an era which he would of loved to have been a part of.
The Jaded Hearts Club make ‘I Put A Spell On You‘ their own by embracing the songs’ menacing undertones with a searing, unexpected and volatile guitar and vocal performance by Graham Coxon and Nic Cester respectively, backed by a heavy thumping jazz-metal rhythm section.
The album ends with a solo Matt Bellamy taking on ‘Fever‘. The track was originally released by Little Willie John but made famous with a sexy rendition by Peggy Lee, unfortunately, Bellamy’s version is more creepy and sleazy rather than sexy, more in the vein of Muse‘s ‘Feeling Good’ but with less conviction, maybe the tune would work better in the middle of the album but to end on this tune is a bit of a low point on an otherwise very fun album.
The Jaded Hearts Club have released a great album here and each song plays to each member’s strengths. When gigs are a go again, The Jaded Hearts Club should be at the top of everybody’s wishlist. Imagine seeing all these legends sharing a stage and playing through some stone-cold classics. It will be interesting to see if the band move through the decades or stick to the ’60s.
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