Inshalla

Personnel: Shaun Luke Sibbes (whistling, percussion); Lee Wesley Jones (guitar); Andrew Hines, Phillip Hartl (strings); Hugh Jennings (accordion); Mark Underwood, Paul Millard (horns); Steve Parkin, Andy Lawson (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Dave Bascombe; Gil Norton.
Photographers: Adrian Mesko; Adrian Mesko.
There's no denying that Eskimo Joe's songwriting and arrangement skills are at a peak on their fourth record, but it's also a jarring proposition that promises more than it delivers: a peculiarity hinted at from the get-go by the title, which is vaguely provocative but without any actual provocation in the lyrics or the music. The band's formidable talent is fully manifested in the opening song, which utilizes a classic riff explored by everyone from Led Zeppelin to Roxette, but which is here turned into a groovy, powerful song complete with Middle Eastern hooks: it's the best effort to create an exotic mood since "Kashmir." The rest of the album is also multilayered, elegant, and catchyL nine out of ten alt rock bands would give an arm and leg to come up with material like this. But one thing the group can do, and what it has set its sights on, is something else. On Inshalla, Eskimo Joe go for '80s rock: low-key post-punk and new wave. They don't channel Joy Division but instead throw together a bunch of clever and, most astonishingly, fresh-sounding homages to the likes of Bryan Adams, Simple Minds, and pop-era Yes and Genesis; there's is a reason track four's title recalls "Owner of a Lonely Heart," to be sure. And for once, the creations upstage the band itself: mindless guitar pop, processed through Eskimo Joe's alt rock filter, results in mature, sometimes dramatic music which is immediately accessible, and also fit for repeated listens. And yet, in the end, it sounds like the band isn't using their potential to the fullest; it's like they have a Batmobile, but only use it for grocery shopping trips or, at best, weekend country jaunts. Inshalla is still hard to turn off once you put it on, but there's no telling how much mind control it could exercise had it been a tad more adventurous. ~ Alexey Eremenko