road rail river

artwork, tracklist, reviews

Tracklisting:

Chocolate Malted
The Inevitable
Everyone Talked About Us
Broken Neck
Pay Day
Who Can Shout Loudest
Volume
Mandarin
Yellow Mustang
Waiting My Time
House On The Hill
Waiting For Me
Dusty Trails
Road Rail River

Reviews:

OOR, THE Dutch music magazine: Even though they get the title of the LP wrong!

''the second album sounds a bit more serious compared to the first one, this is a rootsy album with blues and soul injections, when the music is uptempo it sounds kinda like G. Love...quite a talented band with quite a good album with highlights like ''everyone talked about us'' and "who can shout loudest'':

Plato- mania (Holland):
Het tweede album van het Britse Jack Adaptor, uit Londen, is een aangenaam avontuur. De band bestaat sinds 2002 en werd gevormd rond multi-instrumentalist Chris Cordoba en zanger Paul Frederick. Zij riepen de hulp in van een legertje muzikanten waaronder drie zangeressen. Het resultaat is verrassend. De band klinkt Amerikaans, Cordoba vindt namelijk, dat alle goede populaire muziek ooit in Amerika ontstaan is. Zo worden we van ervaring naar ervaring geslingerd, van rustige luisterliedjes naar rock, alles zit erin. Iets origineels horen? Luister maar eens.
Recensent : Erik Mundt

Froggydelight.com (translated by Lucy White):

Jack Adaptor - here is yet another group with a name thats more than strange 
- which, when translated into French means "prise audio de type Jack" (audio 
plug of a type Jack)

The album cover of this Road Rail River is also equally amusing, and sweetly 
retro.  But the strangest thing with this group is the first timeyour hear 
this record.

From the first song, "Chocolate Malted" you feel as if you are on familiar 
territory.  However it is difficult to precisely label this fresh and 
polished pop.

Caught between Peter Astor, Richard Ashcroft and American folk, the listener 
doesn't know anymore where to put his head (????can't quite get the right 
translation here!).  So you listen again, calmly and... its worse, 
everything mixes, haven't you already heard that song a thousand times, and 
this other one, isn't that a re-make?

But no, all these "perfect" songs, which seem so obvious, which we could 
almost call excercises in style, are the work of Christopher Cordoba.

So we search, and we find.  The guitar in House on the HIll is familiar, and 
so we make our little mind work and the link is made - confirmed by our 
friend Google - JA is a result (ramification) of a group which was 
well-known at the beginning of the 90s - The Family Cat.  And in fact, the 
alter ego is Paul Frederick (Fred to his friends) leader of the group 
responsible for the superb Furthest from the Sun in 1992.

That said, the music of JA is some distance from that record.  The fury of 
the guitars, between rock and shoegazers gives way to crystal melodies and 
acoustic guitars.  Posed, calm, made of ballads (Broken Neck), sugary pop 
songs and some pearlsof pure songwriting (speak young! ???) such as 
"Manadrin" or "Waiting my Time" nicely folky, this RRR has a good feeling of 
the 90s, of perfection, without clashing and without pretention.

And then one cannot resist the erroneously (??) Eels-like "Pay Day" almost 
as beautiful as the "Beautyful Freaks", and the very dancey "Who can Shout 
the Loudest" has no reason to be envious of the indisputable master of the 
pop song these last few decades, Paddy McAloon and his Prefab Sprout, just 
as on "Everyone talked about us" we are convinced that we are listening to a 
mix of the best of Peter Astor and Lloyd Cole, a delight with its discrete 
and delicate female choir.

Like many others at this start of the season, this record could pass 
unrecognised in the shops, yet it is a big record, a beautiful album, that 
those who have it would be happy to have later on - and as much as you would 
have bought Furthest from the Sun (??? not sure of this bit - something 
about not wrinkled for 2 bob???? very odd phrase!!!!) get down to your 
nearest record shop to get this one!

visit the links below for Euroreviews

cnet [germany]

gaesteliste [germany]

popcultures [germany]