2012.01.12 Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart

Color: Black

Release Date: 1994, February 8 / Reissued:  2009, November 24

Label: DeSoto/Atlantic (Reissued on Dischord)

File Under: Favorite records of all time. In fact, this is probably my favorite RECORD of all time. So how does one write about his favorite album and remain somewhat brief? I’m not sure. So here goes… (Stares blankly at screen for a solid two minutes)… Jawbox knew how to play around with tension. Tension within the songs themselves, but also tension between ferocious DC post-punk and saccharine sweet hooks. Maybe the fact that they were obviously rooted in the DC scene but sonically owed a debt of gratitude to a number of Chicago bands appealed to me as well. Here’s the thing with this record: the band were also grappling with the tension of moving from famed indie label Dischord to major Atlantic Records. Some fans cried fowl. But the result was their magnum opus. The music contained within wasn’t even remotely dumbed down as one might expect of a major label release. Instead, For Your Own Special Sweetheart was their most complex and skillfully crafted output yet. New drummer Zach Barocas made the rhythm section of the band a force to be reckoned with, as bassist Kim Coletta took a cue from that Jesus Lizard/Birthday Party bass tone and drove it like a fucking tank. This provided the perfect bed for guitarists J Robbins and Bill Barbot to lay their stabbing and chiming guitars lines down upon as they perfectly mingled and wrapped around each other. Among all this expertly crafted dissonant sonic assault were the vocals which were beginning to utilize melody and harmony in ways the band had never done up to this point. Infectious choruses like those found in “LS/MFT” or “Cooling Card” are prime examples of the marriage between dissonance and pop song craft Jawbox were able to utilize on this recording. I told myself I was going to be brief… so I’ll have to try and stop there with the musical description. I’ll spare you the sordid history of how the band was tragically under-appreciated and completely misunderstood and as a result, dropped almost simultaneously as they delivered their next album (which loses only by a hair to this record as being their best).

Now, let’s talk about the art and the 2009 Vinyl reissue (art shown directly above). The original art did a fairly good job of representing the music contained within. The wheel of a typewriter is contrasted with a plastic mermaid, possibly symbolizing the stabbing percussive nature of the band’s music with the alluring pop hooks they had subtly infused into this record. Flip the sleeve over and you get the full view of the diorama that Robbins had created for the album’s art which is akin to discovering all the ingredients poured into this recording. It might look a little dated through the lens of the aughts… but honestly not so much that it warranted a redesign for the 2009 reissue on Dischord (how’s that for irony?). I don’t know the full story behind the re-imagined artwork - so maybe consequences dictated it…? But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “Why redo the artwork?” Why mess with something that is part of that original statement? Funny thing is… that was part of the reason for this reissue anyway. The band hired the master hand of Bob Weston to remaster the original recording. While I believe this record to be a perfect record, I always did feel it lacked a tad bit of a low end punch and apparently the band felt the same. This remaster more than makes up for it. It sounds so fresh and new, even for a recording I’m very very familiar with. I do miss that old artwork… but if the deed had to be done, Jason Farrell was definitely the right man for the job.