Rat City

Album Review

Jack Oblivian (aka Jack Yarber) has been making good to great records with other folks for years (most notably Greg Cartwright, his partner in the Compulsive Gamblers and the Oblivians), but since he began making his own music his first priority (on his solo albums and his work with his band the Tearjerkers), he's come into his own as a first-rate singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter, and 2011's Rat City shows he's only getting better and mastering an impressive variety of styles. Rat City is tight, confident, and as well-crafted as anything Oblivian has released to date, and musically, it finds him strutting all over the map, from the raw rock & roll of the title cut and the tense, guitar-fueled funk of "Mass Confusion" to the glossy new wave pastiche "Crime of Love," the Brill Building-influenced "Girl with Bruises," and the hook-laden pop of "Girl on the Beach." Oblivian's songwriting is in excellent form on Rat City, melodically embracing different colors with a unified sense of soul and commitment, and he also enriches the album with some high-flying covers, including Billy Swann's Lover Please," Slim Green's "Old Folks Boogie," and Tommy James' "Moses and Me," and he honors the tone of the originals while giving them a rough, sweet punch that's this man's trademark. While some of Jack Oblivian's best music has been his rawest, Rat City shows he's learned how to polish off the noisy grit of some of his earlier efforts while still maintaining the passionate, soulful core, and this album is rich and satisfying, a shot of Memphis rock & soul that's going to set you right.