BG's Top Ten Albums of 2004 - Number Seven

Jason Forrest - The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash

The easiest way I've found to describe this album to others is to drop an analogy on `em, SAT style. It goes like this: Jason Forrest IS TO cock rock & disco AS Prefuse 73 IS TO hip hop. A little simplistic, to be sure, but it gets the point across. And so does Mr. Forrest, who operates on the premise of taking the best part of your favorite songs and cramming them into one unbeatable creation. He wastes no time bringing in the disco hooks and guitar solos, giving them their moment in the sun and then moving on to something else, leaving the listener wanting more of what they just heard but interested in the new shiny object being waved in front of them. "A Spectacle to Refute All Judgments", with it's amazing use of samples from Jefferson Starship's "Jane", opens the album and sets the pace: frantic. Forrest only lets up every now and then, like with the "Benny and the Jets" infused track "Big Obnoxious Sound Club", to give you just enough time to catch your breath before pushing you into something just else just as intense, like the closing track "10 Amazing Years", where Forrest’s use of The Who’s "Who Are you" should almost make you forget any lame CSI associations you may have previously had with the song. This album is loud, ADD, noisy, brash, hectic and totally amazing. It’s sure to knock your socks on you ass.