THE BLACK PILGRIM

July 2013 saw the 12th studio album from Jump, one in many ways that they have been working towards throughout their career. Steve 'Ronnie' Rundle has taken on the bass role in addition to his normal duties, and the only guest this time is Alice Atkinson with violin on a couple of the songs (she also played on the last album). But this time Mo is also contributing accordion as well as keyboards and the two Steves have gone acoustic while Andy isn't as prominent as is usual. Yes, Jump have moved far more into the realms of acoustic folk, although to be honest the overall sound isn't as far removed from their normal sound as one might expect. As I have said before, I have always viewed Jump as an 'English' band as opposed to progressive, and with this album they have shown that they have much in common with the mighty Show of Hands, another band who have always stuck to their own agenda, playing hundreds of gigs and producing one wonderful album after another.

There is purity to this album that is hard to define, with one great song after another, full of emotion and wonderful music, while JDJ shows yet again why he is so highly regarded as a singer. Whatever song I am playing is my favourite, and I have found myself returning to this album time and again as it is such a delight from the start to the very end. Beautiful songs, extremely well constructed with great arrangements, careful thought being given to the amount of space required between the instruments and between the notes, with room for John to add to the magic. Back in 1991 Jump released their wonderful debut, 'The Winds of Change', and some 22 years later and countless gigs four of the six people who performed on that album are still there. Over the years their music has changed, and they have changed with it, but unlike many they have continued to grow and with this, in many ways their simplest and most roots-based album, they have created the finest of their career. Indispensible. www.jumprock.co.uk

Jump have been knocking about in the melodic rock arena for a good long time now, and it's evident from The Black Pilgrim that they have been evolving their sound considerably over the years. The last Jump album I heard was All the King's Men, which struck me as being a fairly flavourless melodic rock album with the occasional neo-prog flourish here and there.

Subsequent to this, they seem to have taken on a folk element to their sound, leading to a mashup of neo-prog and folk on The Black Pilgrim which is novel and competent but ultimately leaves me just as cold as their early work did. At points the songs seem to be fairly formulaic soapboxes for lyrics like those to The Eagle Has Landed, which seems to straight-facedly embraced Moon landing conspiracy theories in a way I find entirely risible. (It may be satirising them, though if it is I'm not seeing where that happens).

In a more musically intricate and nuanced release I'd be occasionally willing to overlook dubious lyrical subject matter, but when what you have here is a setup where the lyrics are that front-and-centre it's harder to get past this. What's worse, though, is that if I set that song aside I find that the rest of the album passes by perfectly pleasantly but nothing really stands out to me - and when the only bit of an album which makes you stand up and pay attention is its embrace of utter rumour-mongering nonsense, that's kind of a bad sign.

If a band is truly British, and you give them a long enough leash, or perhaps shorten it, surely they will revert to the folk of their green isles. Such appears to have been the case with JUMP who, while having flirted with roots music throughout their quarter century, appear to have produced their first full fledged hybrid folk rock album in "The Black Pilgrim". While the subject matter and the arrangements offer validation of this perspective, this isn't a huge leap forwards, backwards or sideways from where they were, say on "The Beachcomber" in 2011, but it's also not that far from what the even more long lived OYSTERBAND have been proposing, with John Dexter Jones sounding like a more technically proficient version of that band's John Jones. Hmm, I wonder what his middle name is. They're both Welsh too.

All that aside, this is one of JUMP's more consistent albums, as in recent years the well of inspiration seems to have been replenished and then some. I could see almost any track as being somebody's favourite, but personally I am particularly fond of the sensitive "My Lady of the Fairground", the angst ridden rocker "Your Madness", the bass driven "Princes of Anger", and especially the oh so English "The Ballad of the Queen in the Morning", with a superb riff and authoritative melody.

If you are a fan of British folk rock with progressive accents, tight ensemble playing, wry lyrics and compelling vocals, do embark on a virtual pilgrimage to this 2013 release.