Jacqui L
PLANET PARALLEL 5
(Jacqui L)

There’s lots going on with conceptual rock artist, Jacqui L. Her new album PLANET PARALLEL 5 sees the singer/ songwriter/ keyboardist presenting her view of the world through her self-invented scorpion/alien character of Jacqui L from the planet PP5.

“Happy Birthday” opens. It’s not much more than an almost little girl mélange of voices, but we are quickly into the jumpy beat and lower, more palatable vocals on “Frankenstein.” This moves along nicely with its Middle-Eastern guitar riff from Marty Hailey and cool percussion stomps from Joe Accaria.

Dave Symes provides a sly bass counterpoint to the keyboard main line on “Cold.” This tune, my favorite here, breaks out of its introduction jazz cool to mine some truly progressive leanings. Jacqui L jams very well with her players on this almost-all instrumental tune (she brings back the little girl voices at times). “Under The Noise,” built around a tribal drum beat, single-guitar lines and breathy doubled harmony vocal has a Kate Bush/Peter Gabriel vibe.

The big guitar noise and hard snare of “Stroke It,” and then the swirly glistening plunk of “Distraction” ends PLANET PARALLEL 5. Jacqui L sounds especially sexy on this last one, as she seeks her identity with a lilt to her vocal delivery.

It’s gonna take you a few passes here until you get all that Jacqui L is talking about, and are able to enjoy the full force of the heady production of PLANET PARALLEL 5, but I assure you it will be time well spent.