I'll admit, I'm a big Jesse fan (one of my most cherished memories is using a fake to get into one of his shows), but I'm liking his latest (streeted today) a whole lot. It is rock and roll. Its characters are rockers or lovers of rock. There's a really cool duet with Springsteen where Malin's nasal voice interacts with the Boss in a very soulful ode.

Straight rockers like Prisoners of Paradise, In the Modern World, Black Haired Girl and Don't Let Them Take You Down are all filled with energy and have been stuck in my head for the past couple days.

Only really bad track is his cover of The Replacements "Bastards of Young." Much like his sub-par "Hungry Heart" cover, it takes a lively barroom-type song, and reinvents it as a mournful slow song with just Jesse's vocals and a guitar. The stripped back approach seems unique in theory, but it creates a lifeless cover.

I haven't kept up w/ Jesse because I never got into his 1st solo album. However, I was a huge D Generation fan ("No Lunch" is still an all-time fave), so it's good to see that he's still releasing new stuff.