Album Review: Jyrki69 - "American Vampire"

 

Literally just sneaking into our reviews pile at the last moment for 2021 comes this second solo album from erstwhile 69 Eyes frontman Jyrki69. American Vampire is the follow-up to 2017's Helsinki Vampires and sees him assembling an impressive guestlist for a mix of originals and covers.

Pleased to report that this one gets off to a strong start with Jyrki teaming up with Swedish glam-turned-industrial merchants Shotgun Messiah to cover Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll from their Second Coming album and it's just as much of a freewheeling blast as ever. A gothed-up cover of White Rabbit featuring Billy Idol's axeman-in-chief Steve Stevens is alright for what it is and a team-up with goth perennials Rosetta Stone on Dreamtime basically sounds more like an RS song that just happens to have Jyrki on vocals with its icy guitars and Sisters style drum machine.

So a bit of a mixed bag for an opening trio then and to be honest, American Vampire continues in this vein throughout - it's got its moments but perhaps predictably given the variety of people involved it feels more like a collection of individual tracks than an album in its own right. On the one hand, the gleefully OTT team-up with Leather Strip on Bite It You Scum is good fun and the sweeping electronica of Deviant Carousal (featuring Xiu Xiu) works well but on the other, a team-up with Tiffany (yes, she of I Think We're Alone Now fame) for a gothed-up cover of Don't You Want Me is a missed opportunity and is sunk by some truly dreadful vocal double-tracking and a team-up with Shotgun Messiah's Tim Skold on the title track isn't all it could've been, sounding more 69 Eyes by numbers than anything. It's Clover, late on side two, that really sums the slightly schizophrenic nature of this album up though - a brooding goth lament which has some good guitar work and vocals but then kind of ruins it by whacking some superfluous trip-hop beats and scratchy mixing on it which just don't sit well with the rest of the track.

A mixed bag overall then which is probably more for die-hard Jyrki/69 Eyes fans than the casual observer. For the devoted, there's definitely a few curios to get your fangs into but for the rest of us, it might be more prudent to either check out Jyrki's rather good 69 Cats rockabilly album from a few months back or just wait for a new 69 Eyes album proper.

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌓🌓🌓🌓🌓🌓🌑🌑🌑🌑 (6/10)

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