Eskimo Joe - BlackFingernails, Red WineSingle

Tue 20th Jun, 2006 in Music Reviews

Listening to Eskimo Joe is like watching the geeky guy next door growing up into a Calvin Klein model.  You go from trying to avoid another Star Wars game to trying to avoid looking like a groupie. The members of Eskimo Joe have all grown up as the title track from their forthcoming third album Black Fingernails, Red Wine proves, with a great leap in maturity. 

It’s hard to imagine this is that band you loved in high school because they sang about bad clothes your mother bought you.  Lyrics about sweaters have transformed gradually from the 2001 debut Girl to 2004 album A Song is a City to the latest effort.  No longer do we have the bubblegum Eskimos of the 1990s, but a fully-fledged adult band with a bubbling darkness from below. 

Drawing from different influences, this single advances the band’s sound, as it grows from their previous recordings.  Think INXS without JD Fortune, Bon Jovi without the hair, and Coldplay without the inevitable light show.  1980s stadium rock, heavy on the arrangements and production, this song grows on you from the first listen. 

Lyrics illustrate a darker side to the band only hinted at on their sophomore LP.  Lines such as “The argument over God continues/In this house/All of us stand and point our fingers” are well mixed with a murky and sometimes sinister melody, with hypnotising effects.

‘Black Fingernails, Red Wine’ is a great track that shows amazing growth for the band and promises a lot from the forthcoming album. 

The B-sides include two original songs (‘Japanese Waitress’ and ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’) and a live version of ‘From the Sea’ recorded on Rove [Live]. These tracks are unfortunately below par compared to the A-side. ‘Japanese Waitress’ sounds very similar to ‘This Room’, from A Song is a City, while ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ is an overly dramatic keys-based ballad.  The live track is also lacklustre — a better version found on last year’s Older Than You Single.