The songs on Marshall Crenshaw's new Jaggedland (released in June 2009 on 429 Records) work as a cohesive whole; while Crenshaw can always be counted on to turn in a quality set of songs, there's a unity about this group of twelve compositions. "I knew that I was crafting an album, you know what I mean? Of course I gave great attention to detail on each individual song, but I had an agenda: there was this group of songs that hang together and complement one another."
You have to love this strong a comeback, because they really don’t come often enough. In the early ‘80s, Marshall Crenshaw made an immediate mark as a singer-songwriter of exceptional talent. He had a way of synthesizing several elements of past masters into a new style; he was never retro but still always informed by the past. Crenshaw took over New York like a man afire, and his early hit “Someday, Someway” stands as a sonic monument to the time.
Marshall Crenshaw’s debut album, released 27 years ago, remains one of the most consistently satisfying efforts every waxed to vinyl. But in listening to the record with the benefit of hindsight, Crenshaw seems just a bit breathless throughout, almost as if he possessed the wisdom to realize just how precarious his shot at the brass ring would ultimately prove to be. Now, more than a quarter century later, Crenshaw has released Jaggedland, the latest installment in his recorded oeuvre.
Strangely, despite extreme critical acclaim and occasional heavy marketing, Marshall Crenshaw is not a superstar, although everyone knows a handful of his recordings or compositions (like the Gin Blossoms hit, "Til I Hear It From You"). Well, one of the best things about Marshall Crenshaw's new Jaggedland is, yes, it's another Marshall Crenshaw album, yay. But also, it's a wonderfully solid offering that is another opportunity to make true believers out of casual listeners whose memories and music collections merely include his '82 Warners self-titled debut (with the classics "Someday, Someway," "Cynical Girl," and "There She Goes Again"), or even Miracle Of Science (that featured "What Do You Dream Of," a cover of Dobie Gray's "The 'In' Crowd," and the brilliant anthem and alternate universe Top Ten smash, "Starless Summer Sky").
Musoscribe.com