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Nuclear Furniture

Jefferson Starship - Nuclear Furniture Audio CD

A fair review of the Jefferson Starship "Nuclear Furniture" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Jefferson Starship reviews here, or go back to the Jefferson Starship tabs.

Band: Jefferson Starship
Title: Nuclear Furniture
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-07-09
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Layin' It on the Line 2: No Way Out 3: Sorry Me, Sorry You 4: Live and Let Live 5: Connection 6: Rose Goes to Yale 7: Magician 8: Assassin 9: Shining in the Moonlight 10: Showdown 11: Champion

Still cruising, but destabilizing in flight
When everyone was more or less on the same page, fans would get diverse yet cohesive albums such as "Surrealstic Pillow", "Volunteers", "Dragonfly" or "Freedom at Point Zero". For better or worse, the Jefferson Airplane/Starship were democratic bands, giving room for a lot of band members to have their say in songwriting. When they weren't, however, you ended up with disjointed works like "Spitfire" or the disastrous "Bark. "

This album, the eighth from the Starship, is somewhere in the middle. By this time, the band had four mostly separate songwriting factions of songwriters: rhythm guitarist/vocalist Paul Kantner's sci-fi/fantasy visions; singer Grace Slick, solo or with outsiders; bassist/keyboardist Pete Sears, providing music to his wife Jeanette's lyrics; and the pair-up of singer Mickey Thomas and lead guitarist Craig Chaquico.

This could have been very messy, but the band made the smart decision to bring back producer Ron Nevison, who had worked on the group's first two albums with Thomas as well as Grace's most recent solo album, "Software". Nevison also brought along Grace's songwriting partner from that album, Austrian keyboardist Peter Wolf.

Wolf provided most of the keyboard parts and arrangements to the album, which results in a signficant change in the JS sound. On "Freedom at Point Zero" and "Modern Times", Nevison let the guitars dominate, with keyboards in a support role. Here, Wolf's synthesizers are on an equal footing with the guitars in the mix. Combining this with new drummer Donny Baldwin's more basic rhythms and some drum machines, we have a slicker, more "80's" sound from the group.

That's not all bad, because it lends a coherence that might have otherwise been missing from the album. For instance, even so, the Searses' songs are all over the place. "Sorry Me, Sorry You" is a bouncy synth-popper that sounds like the Moody Blues' "Gemini Dream", even down to the duet vocals of Slick and Thomas. On the other hand, the spooky synth and booming percussion of "Live and Let Live" are remniscent of Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight". Thomas pulls out his best vocal of the album for it, though. Finally, the creeping "Assassin" is Pete's best musical idea, but the trite lyrics undercut it.

Craig and Mickey continue down the generic arena rock path. "Shining in the Moonlight" is a rather blatant rewrite of the hit "Find Your Way Back". "Laying it On the Line" is better, a rousing rocker with some interesting political lyrics.

Grace contributions are stronger then they had been on the previous "Winds of Change" album. She provided the lyrics to Wolf's "Magician", another cute, upbeat synth-pop song. On the opposite end of the spectrum, her solo composition "Showdown" is a dark vision of nuclear war, with the ghostly synths and percussion effectively adding to the atmosphere.

Kantner's tracks are by far the most ambitious. The bizarre, lenghty "Connection" seems to about modern humans reconnecting to caveman roots, or post-apocalyptic primitives remembering pre-war civilization (or something), ending up with a lyrical plea from Thomas for Christian and Muslims to make peace. It rambles musically, but it does work anyway. Finally, "Rose Goes to Yale" and "Champion" form a two part suite, reviving "Freedom. . "'s Lightning Rose character as a symbol of the human determination to go on in the face of nuclear devastation. Again, a typically Paul weird combo of sci-fi and 60's radical ranting.

Finally, there's one outside composition. Wolf and his wife Ina contributed "No Way Out", a synth-dominated ballad that sounds like nothing the Starship had yet recorded. Its sound, like Marty Balin's "Miracles" before it, would redefine the band's sound to come for better or for worse.

Paul was unhappy enough with the album to jump ship during the tour,
resulting in lot of changes. Despite some of the songs being sort of generic, there's enough vestiges of the original "Jefferson" sound along with the new 80's "Starship" sound to please both camps of fans. This makes it an improvement over the previous two, although "Freedom at Point Zero" should be the first choice of the Thomas-era albums. Really old line Airplane fans, though, better look elsewhere. .

Decent
This was the last album to include Paul Kantner and David Freiberg, the two key founders of Jefferson Starship, who would both depart after the promotional tour for this album. Well, I will start my review by saying this: If you are buying this expecting this to be Jefferson Starship's best album, don't buy it.

Now that it's said and done, this isn't a terrible album. It's not one of their best by any means, but it's still pretty good. 'Layin' It On The Line' is a must listen for any fan of the band. Also, 'No Way Out' is an interesting '80s pop rock song.

Much of the album is dominated by Mickey Thomas and the bass playing of Pete Sears, so it's not terrible. But compared to their earlier efforts, it loses every time.

Also, Peter Wolf's production is solid, but it's obvious Wolf was aiming Jefferson Starship to go in a poppy, radio-friendly direction, and true fans know that Jefferson Starship were anything but a radio friendly band.

Overall, if you were stranded island and you had to pick just one Jefferson Starship album to listen to, my first choice would not be 'Nuclear Furniture. ' Casual fans are strongly recommended to buy their studio albums with Marty Balin as the vocalist or 'Freedom At Point Zero,' Mickey Thomas' first with the band, but unless you are a collector of Jefferson Starship, I would just skip this.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad album. It's just that it's weak under Jefferson Starship's standards.

Recommended for the Jefferson Starship collector. .

Correction
Geils Band. The Peter Wolf who worked with JS on this CD is NOT the same guy from the J. Come on people, haven't you figured that out already? It's only been 21 years since this came out.

Not the best, but interesting
Whether with a fiddle player (red octapus), playing science fiction music or just good rockers, they always were changing. One thing that JS did was change - they never stayed the same.

That said, you'll either like this album as a transition between the Jefferson Starship and Starship days (I think that Paul Kantner took the Jefferson with him) or you won't.

All lot of the difference in this album comes from new collaborators, like Peter Wolf of J. Geils fame. If you think how "freezeframe" differed from the earlier JG blues, you'll get the idea. But there is still Paul Kantner with his SF lyrics and speaking/singing voice who wields the greatest influence.

I happen to like this album, and several of the tunes have ended up on my "Best Of" CD. Probably not for non-JS fans, but for the rest of us, a good album to have. I hope that it gets back into regular release (and remastered, too).

A True Gem from the 80's
I have it on vinyl and was thrilled to see it in cd format. ,One of the finest albums from the 80's indeed from both musical and sound engineering aspect. The collaboration between
Slick and Thomas was magical. Favorite cuts,"No Way Out",Layin it on the Line",Sorry Me Sorry You",Magician,The entire works is truly a piece of art. Highly underated. I loved "Freedom at Point Zero" but this one really takes the cake. . . A definite must Have!.

You can see a complete list of all Jefferson Starship discography, or go back to the Jefferson Starship tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.