CD Review: J'Espere - Live As Loud As You Can

J'Espere - Live As Loud As You Can
2008, J'Espere 

J’Espere is French for I expect or I hope.  I can tell you unequivocably that there is no hoping involved in J’Espere’s music.  It’s the real deal.Live As Loud As You Can has a fuzzy melancholy that informs it from start to finish.  The lyrics are positive and hopeful, but the music has an ambivalent effect in raising specters of doubt or dissent to positive themes. 

Live As Loud As You Can (title track) is a self-actualizing anthem with a slightly dark timbre in the music.  Some of this is in the production value, but some is the music itself.  Feeling of Heaven is in a similar state.  The end result is a series of songs that are uplifting with a "but..." hanging over them.  The music is outstanding, and the juxtaposition of emotion makes for great listening.  Other highlights are Here I Go and Shut Inside. 

Live As Loud As You Can brings healthy melancholy back to the forefront of modern rock.  J'Espere has defined its path here in certain terms, and it may be a path to very big things. 

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about J’Espere at www.myspace.com/jespere.  You can purchase copies of Live As Loud As You Can at www.cdbaby.com/jespere2, or on BestBuy.com.