Jump

Despite evidence to the contrary--an oversized platform shoe on the front cover, a blatantly misspelled song title--Jump's self-titled debut is most definitely not a glam record. First released in 1971 on Janus Records, this Los Angeles-based quartet's lone lp is actually prototypical stoner rock, a big, lumbering slab of organ-heavy hard rock. "Love Wit Chu Mama" kicks things off (the nod to the spell-checked challenged Slade is obvious) and ultimately establishes the framework on which the rest of the album is built--heavy guitar riffs entangled with a series of pounding keyboard fills buttressed by gruff, smokey vocals. "Close as Touch" and "Enough of This Circus" are like-minded numbers--heavy on the crunch and relatively short on creativity--while both "Having a Wonderful Time" and "Life, Leave Us Part as Friends" attempt, with mixed results, at revealing the band's more sensitive side. Strangely, the album's best moment is the straight ahead, more pop-oriented "Here I Lie with You." It's this song that effectively blends together both of the band's personalities with just the right mix of acoustic guitar and hard rock harmony and hints at what might have been. What was was a quick trip to the cut-out bin and a long, inevitable journey to The "I-Own-Every-Record-You'd-Never-Buy" CD Consumer's Guide. Jump was done by the end of the year, another oversized platform shoe buried in the attic of rock and roll's ever-expanding lost and found.

Notes: Here is an audio-only YouTube clip of Jump's "Love Wit Chu Mama:" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4wLCs0qaN4.