Sound Republic: Album Reviews

The Jezabels - She's So Hard EP

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By Shayna Burton
11 April 2010

Album Rating: 3 / 5

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The Jezabels

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She's So Hard

The Jezebels are fast becoming firm favourites of the indie scene touring with bigger names such as Tegan and Sara as well as beginning the rounds of the festival circuit. The new EP 'She’s So Hard' is a follow up from their early 2009 debut The Man is Dead. A band that is highly regarded as a live act, there are high hopes and big dreams with this new release.

Haley Mary has the fragile frank tone to her voice that has become so refreshingly popular amongst female singers of today and is really allowed to shine on this record. The opening track, and first single 'Hurt Me' is a fast paced ride through hurt and loss that gets more interesting and enjoyable with each listen. By far the standout track for me is 'Easy To Love,' although I struggled with the feeling the drumming overpowering rather than adding to the drama of the song. The power and drama of 'She’s So Hard' is one that is unshakeable and live I feel that the rawness of this young band would be so very exciting. Dark and twisted 'She’s So Hard' takes you through the range of emotions and spits you out the other end without any real idea where you’ve ended up.

Lyrically, 'She’s So Hard' is refreshingly strong with storytelling and bold lines packing a punch. Musically however it feels like there is a war between two sides. Although the strong drumming of Nik K is effective on some tracks like the first single 'Hurt Me', the overwhelming feeling for me is that the drumming overpowers rather than compliments the other players on this record. By all reports the hard hitting drumming makes Jezabels an exciting live band, however this doesn’t seem to have translated to disk and I left wondering if altering the drumming somehow may have made this album a little less isolating to its listeners.