Let us not beat around the bush here. JC’s Revenge are liars. They may be one of the best four-piece bands on the Gloucestershire music circuit, but that does not - cannot - stop them from being boxer shorts-ablaze liars. "New Adventures of JC’s Revenge", the title of their latest CD, is a little misleading.
Seven of the twelve songs featured on this album have been released on EPs before. Archive reviews of them can be found on these pages if you look hard enough. So what we have here is a collection of new and old adventures in hi-fi for the revenge boys. Greatest Hits? That is not, of course, to say that you shouldn’t bother with this album. Far from it. It’s actually quite useful to have these twelve tracks side by side on the one album. It gives a broader overview of the talents of the band, rather than quick snap shots of a group’s work in progress. For the uninitiated, JC’s Revenge are an innovative four piece whose output can be compared both to indie acts such as Teenage Fanclub, The Violent Femmes and Grandaddy as they can to the more predictable yardsticks of grunge, Nirvana. Nice and Sleazy Does It The lyrics are a combination of innocent love songs (or unrequited love songs – see "Someone Special" and "Don’t Say it’s Over") and much less innocent songs with a dirtier, grittier edge ("Day at the Races" and "7/11"). It makes for fairly schizophrenic listening. Are JC’s Revenge a band of bedsit dreamers composing their songs of love, or would they prefer the grubbier lure of whips and chains excitement? Maybe they want a bit of both. Is that so impossible? Songs of Innocence… One of the newer songs here is "Looking Glass", which finds itself firmly in the more innocent camp. Despite the catchy dance-y riffs, it’s a song of sadness ("everything’s gone wrong for me"). It’s a theme that matches up with the sentiments of other new songs "Another Way" and "Retard" along with the older "Memories of Her". …And Experience Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your own personal tastes and perversions, JC’s Revenge don’t seem to have produced so much of the darker stuff recently. Seedy stories of lap dancing, gambling, seductive "pretty Czechs" ("Day at the Races") and bored garage attendants kidnapping beautiful customers ("7/11") can only be found among the earlier contributions. Perhaps these boys have mellowed with age. Not Just a Teenage Dirt Bag This band could easily be mistaken for just another bunch of whining adolescents railing against the world just because they can’t get the girl. But there is more to them than that - songs like (Scooby Doo tribute) "Daphne Blake" easily put paid to that myth. There’s a melancholy poetry among their romantic daydreams, their unrequited ramblings and even their grubbier fumblings. Best in Show The MC at the beginning of a live recording on the album announces "This is probably one of the only bands that play here that I actually quite like". While hardly a resounding advertisement for his music venue, you can see why he does. | 
