Punknews.org

|
Sign In | create an account

A Jealousy Issue

If The Flames Don't Kill Us... We Will (2003)
Indianola Records

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: FortyMinutesWest
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on December 16th 2003

You know, I liked Poison the Well, I liked them a lot. In my opinion, “The Opposite of December” was a great album, and one that I listened to countless times. However, each album after that was a disappointment, including the completely overproduced “You Come Before You”. I can say the same about Keepsake, their earlier stuff was good, but their newer stuff has been like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. A Jealousy Issue features former members of Poison the Well and Keepsake, but refuses to be written off as just another “ex-members” band.

While I do hear bits of both Poison the Well and Keepsake in this band’s sound, they’re doing their own thing, and they’re a lot more pissed off. They do a lot of what is expected out of Floridian bands playing this kind of metalcore, spoken words ala Morning Again, acoustic guitar sprinkled here and there, etc. However, you won’t find much singing, here, thankfully. The urgency in the vocal delivery really has the ability to carry some of these songs. People might not think it takes skill to scream, but trust me, there’s a difference between a good and bad scream, and Duane Jealousy has quite the powerful voice. Musically, there some air guitar inducing riffs and some nice, tastefully placed breakdowns. I wouldn’t be all that surprised to see this band turn up on the roster of label like Eulogy in the near future.

Lyrically, the band doesn’t exactly stray into uncharted territory. Most of the songs on here are about relationships, failed, intimate, or otherwise. Take the song “Paperweight” for example: “I have no need for this heart, for it receives no love at all, so impractical in its nature, just a charming paper weight defined only by shape not worth.” Although they aren’t treading new ground, at least they’re well written.

At the end of the day, A Jealousy Issue isn’t exactly the savior of emotional metalcore, but they certainly do the job well enough. This band is more to the point than a lot of the other bands attempting this style, and as a result they are able to keep things more interesting. This genre is crowded, but that doesn’t mean there still aren’t good things to be found among the throwaways, if you’re into this style of music at all, A Jealousy Issue is worth your attention.

Who Crucified The Chaperone? MP3

Login to rate this album

People who liked this also liked:

Please login or register to post comments.

What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

ourladyofsorrows (March 6, 2004)

I love A Jealousy Issue I think this is a great album... surprisingly I'm not a fan of ptw... but aji is more up my alley.

GreenVandal (December 21, 2003)

Or Jealous. Whatever congegation you prefer.

GreenVandal (December 21, 2003)

NO. Black Sails was lite shut your mouth perfected. Now Art of Drounding...that was where things started to get bad...

woo to bands with jealousy in their names.

FortyMinutesWest (December 20, 2003)

I think that album is where they started to lose me, I'll take "Shut Your Mouth..." over "Black Sails" any day.

GreenVandal (December 19, 2003)

You know whats a really good song? lower it by AFI. Good old fashioned Black Sails era sing along. Damn I wish i had a time machine.

Anonymous (December 19, 2003)

Fuck poison the well!
Fuck Keepsake!
It's all about the fucking issue!

FortyMinutesWest (December 18, 2003)

The review is a bit misleading, I still like PTW, "The Opposite of December" still finds itself in my CD player regularly. There are a couple decent songs on the new one, but no many. "Tear From The Red" just doesn't do it for me, and as a result I rarely listen to it. Still, I respect any band that can release an album like "The Opposite of December", I just wished they would've explored that sound a bit more on later releases.

GreenVandal (December 18, 2003)

I never liked em, and I doubt I ever will. now have a candy cane.

HI-YA!

Anonymous (December 18, 2003)

The reveiw was good, ive wanted to hear what others thought of this band. Ive never heard them and I think coming from Keepsake and Poison the Well this will be good. You Come Before You was overproduced, and Tear From the Red seems like its a journey into progressive suck, but in my eyes Poison the Well has produced 3 great ablums and one great EP. Ide like to say, to anyone who has have stopped listening to them because theyve been overproduced or they changed there sound and sold out, youre narrowminded and youre just trying to be cooler then the next guy who hates them. No offense to Forty, I like his reviews.

anyways fuck off, from your friend

- Dieslow

GreenVandal (December 18, 2003)

bring it forty. im gonna show you some real holiday spirit!

FortyMinutesWest (December 17, 2003)

That's it*

FortyMinutesWest (December 17, 2003)

That's me and you Vandal, kickboxing, gloves dipped in broken candy canes. Although the new PTW is pretty weak, especially the nu-metal singing.

GreenVandal (December 17, 2003)

Well, just for the sake of further kickboxing, I think all these fucking bands suck. Especially Poison the Wells new disc.

FortyMinutesWest (December 17, 2003)

And the kickboxing match draws ever closer... Really, I guess it's all personal preference, but new PTW really does nothing for me.

Anonymous (December 17, 2003)

I'll take any Poison the Well album, especially the underappreciated You Come Before You over this band. I'll even take the Jealous Sound over this band. As much as I don't really care for them, at least they're good at what they do! Duane's voice has not progressed at all, and the songwriting is substantially worse on this record than Absence Makes....
-ThereIsLifeInThis-
(isn't purposefully trying to vex 40 minutes, but it's working out quite nicely)