Jesus H. Foxx – a seven piece band from Edinburgh – don’t do songs as much as barely confined musical meanderings and their album “Endless Knocking” wanders aimlessly, but amiably, in a field of variable quality . It’s a likeable enough album but it is equally true that it does seem to have no particular place to go.
In its favour are the occasional bursts of spirit that counterpoint the, no doubt intentionally, dour vocals of the singer (called Michael, it says here) and there were times when the band, such as on “Elegy For The Good”, sounded like a inspired low budget cross between Luxury Condo and Frightened Rabbit. A mark of potential character, I would say.
Other songs on the album did stumble with, in particular, the painfully uneventful “The Reins, Quick” serving more of a discouragement than an introduction to the album. However, against those quality lapses you would have to balance the Scottish indie majesty of “J+J”. Consistency is clearly not to be the name of the game here.
Although let down further by the band’s adherence to that peculiarly Scottish tradition of shoddy sound quality, “Endless Knocking”, whilst being something akin to the proverbial curate’s egg, remains worthy of your attention even if I doubt that you will be asking for its hand in marriage.