Jimmy Jax Pinchak Band – Make It Better
May 22, 2014
The professional alumni that backs up Make It Better isn’t something to be sniffed at; mixed by Josh Mosser (co-writer of Imagine Dragons’ Radioactive), mastered by Grammy award winner Erick Labson, plus Jimmy Jax Pinchak also works a professional actor (Peter Wiggin from Ender’s Game).
Make It Better is chunky blues rock, peppered with piano riffs and squealing compressed guitar solos. All the blues tropes are there, with plenty of swirling hammond organs and great effects on the guitars – check out the pitch shifted depth of ‘On The Run’, with the aforementioned piano adding flavour and a sense of fun to the track. ‘Tell Me’ is punchy, but at points Pinchak’s vocal feels a little thin, not quite cutting it against the power and dynamics of the instrumentation.
The album’s title track opens strong, with more of the trademark wailing guitars, and sees Pinchak’s vocals step up to the plate by adding a dose of grit that begins to match up to the huge rocking tones that are delivered.
‘In The Fire’ see the best use of blues, blending organs and harmonicas to create a track of real beauty. By the middle eight, there’s a real sense of emotion and scale before leading into the glorious release of the guitar solo. ‘Free Your Mind’ feels a little lacking after the sheer wall of sound that the album has featured so far, although yet again the organ works hard to create a swirling sense of psychedelia.
The Jimmy Jax Pinchak Band have made some worthy tracks on Make It Better, and while they might not make much of a dent in the world of blues rock, it’s a valiant effort and deserving of good things to come.