Johnossi - Johnossi Album Review

Johnossi
Johnossi
Album Review

Johnossi is a Stockholm-based duo comprising a bloke called John, who sings and plays the guitar, and a bloke called Ossi, who plays the drums. Stockholm's answer to the White Stripes, then? Well no, not quite. But they're in serious danger of earning that label with the opening strack on this album, "The Show Tonight". The guitar fluctuates between clean acoustic and distorted freak-out, and the drums are reminiscent of Ms White's. "Execution Song" starts the process of making White Stripes comparisons redundant. It's pretty much a straight-ahead rocker, with rapid-fire vocals over a guitar that stabs its way through the verses and pounds through the choruses.

"Glory Days To Come" is a more obviously pop song that for some reason puts me in mind of The Who. "You don't built a city in a day, but in twenty years you should have something" is a lyric to stick in the Not Half Bad file. Parts of the song sound a little empty, though, which is a shame because for the most part, this is a two-piece with a well thought out, full sound. "There's A Lot Of Things To Do Before You Die" sounds a little like The Levellers. Rat-a-tat drumming, a busy guitar part, again with rapid-fire vocals over the top, and a brief folky arpeggio only add to the impression. I'm not sure that the way to wisdom is to "take off your clothes and start digging for your soul", though.

"Man Must Dance" has a shuffly swing kind feel, with sparse percussion and another busy guitar part that breaks briefly into distorted White Stripes territory. "Family Values" has a bluesy, acoustic quality that sadly screams "halfway through the album now!". I'm sorry to report that if your walls need a bit of touching up, you could use this as filler. The standard's raised again for "Press Hold", which again puts me in mind of The Levellers (and that's an odd thing for me to write, because I really don't like The Levellers very much), although I'm really not sure about the brief flirtation with falsetto vocals.

"Rescue Team" has that carefree summer feel that Dodgy used to do and a big shoutalong chorus that's just made for festival crowds. In fact, I can imagine this band doing well at festivals, which is just as well, since they seem to be playing bloody loads of them. "Santa Monica Bay" begins with a busy, bluesy guitar that drives the song along, and then briefly takes a turn for the metal. Then, sadly, we're back to square one just when I was getting my hopes up. Nice abrupt ending, though. "The Lottery" screams "obligatory slow one!" and I have to resist the urge to hit the "Skip" button. It's an urge that overwhelms me when the epic guitar bit kicks in: I can see the lighters (or is it mobile phones these days, kids?) being waved and I feel a bit sick.

"Summerbreeze" closes the record. "Once a failure, always a retard" is a cloying opening line, but I can imagine swaying people singing along to it. I just wouldn't be one of them. It's set against a very sparse guitar part that wants me to think it's heartfelt and earnest, but to be frank, I prefer Johnossi when they're being a bit bigger and a lot less clever.

Something of a curate's egg, then, but I can imagine a world in which Johnossi sell lots of records, play gigs that get people jumping around and sweating, and are generally considered to be quite good. Whether that's the real world or not, I don't know.

Jon Watson