Ben Davis and the Jetts, Charge It Up!, 4 of 5 stars
It will likely surprise unfamiliar listeners that Charge It Up! is spearheaded by a mild-mannered, well-bearded Carrboro family man.
But Ben Davis, who leads his Jetts, fits that description, though you’d never know it from the 10 red-hot cuts on his band’s album.
Wrangling the blistering fuzz of Sonic Youth and hitching it to rocket-powered rhythms, the outfit has produced an album that careens down the cathartic back roads that turn art rock into jubilant pop.
“Robocoppin’” is an excellent example of the approach. Atop swaggering, distorted riffs, a pounding beat and the late-night sheen of colorful synth, Davis brags about how he’s moving on from a failed relationship. “I’m about to paint this town a couple of colors you shouldn’t ever mix now,” he sings, throwing away the line with all the casual cruelty of a man just released from his romantic leash.
On this and a good supply of other up-tempo songs, the band rocks their problems right out of town. And while the tools they use occasionally get repetitive, they’re assembled with too much energy to ever approach boring.
But it all gets nailed home when Davis’ runaway train crashes into darkly emotional pay dirt.
On “Rincon Pio Sounds,” bassist Megan Culton piercingly sings of the obstacles between two people as guitar, keyboards and bass tangle into a knot of pure momentum. “A rock will only skip so far/Until it sinks through into the dark,” she sings as the music solidifies the notion into certainty. It’s an impeccably crafted pillar of pure frustration that burns with passion.
So whether the attack is powered by sneering disregard or angst-ridden admission, Davis and his Jetts provide furiously rocking release. As a result, there’s nothing mild or family-oriented about it.
