It’s hard to know what to make of Jinx Lennon. Dressed like a latter day Joe Strummer, and with dark shades bearing the words ‘Free State Nova’ Tipp-exed across the lenses, he walks a thin line between joker and punk. If we take his hip-hop/punk preacher exhortations at face value, then the Dundalk native, like his heroes past, is prone to railing against all that he deems unfit in modern society. Know Your Station Gouger Nation is littered with rage-filled rants on social upheaval, middle-class frivolity, being on the dole, the influx of immigrants and homelessness. All are relevant topics, which Lennon attacks in his inimitable deep Louth accent. At his best he comes across as an Irish Mike Skinner, albeit lacking the inherent musicality that is a hallmark of The Streets’ work. But it is a hard brief to sustain twenty tracks of sometimes howling rage set to essentially timid acid jazz lite arrangements. To say it grates in parts is an understatement. In truth the combination too often sounds more like street poetry with an improvised backing than anything of real musical heft or subtlety.
Paula Flynn provides a calming and graceful antidote. Where she features, her soft vocals force Lennon to tone things down, making the sparse ‘The Triffid Lamps Of Bellingham’, ‘St Brigid’s Shrine’ and ‘More Than 2 Cigarettes’ moments of real beauty.
There is quality here. But it needs to be better harnessed if Jinx is going to make an album that you’d want to play from start to finish, again and again.