Artist: Joan Jett
Album: Sinner
Label: Blackheart Records
Tracks: 14

 

 

 

 

Joan Jett has traditionally been one of rock’s most overlooked and overworked artists, with the coming of Sinner and a stint on the Vans Warped Tour this summer though it looks as if the tide may be changing.

 

The fact that it’s been a decade since Jett last released an album is all but lost on Sinner. It’s as if no time has passed at all, yet the market has changed so much in that decade that Jett left as a “rock chick” and re-enters treated like a living legend. You’ll get no argument from me but you have to admit its interesting scenario. What really matters here however is whether or not Jett still has “it” in her and Sinner rocks with a resounding mid-tempo rock and roll “yes.”

 

The album opens with Jett’s first political song, “Riddles.” She does a good job of making her views known without being preachy about it and that’s probably subconsciously reinforced by the fact that this is the only political song on the album, largely defeating the idea that there is an agenda here beyond rock and roll. A lot of the songs focus on love, relationships, and sexuality, as you’d expect, but Jett gets down in the gutter a few times. In particular is the heavy and sexually charged “Fetish.” This one is definitely not for the kiddies lyrically but it does wrangle up the heaviest sounds on Sinner.

 

There are a lot of highlights here. This isn’t one of those albums that gives you a good song and then a filler song and so on. The first single “A.C.D.C” is a full on by the book rock and roll song that invokes the spirit of Chuck Berry as much as any punk rock groove.  Personally I love “Watersign,” a bluesy ballad that really highlights how this band rocks even when the music’s going slow. “Naked” is another highlight. It’s got a radio friendly familiarity and it just sounds well…it sounds just like Joan Jett & the Blackhearts.

 

Sinner is a solid and forceful return to making albums for the band. The album is about as true blue rock and roll as the come, just like you’d expect. When Joan Jett & the Blackhearts started out they were joining a thriving rock and roll scene but now, some 25 years into their career, they may just be the last of the real rock bands.