Thick, crunchy and hard enough to throw down some serious thunder just when the verse really requires it, there’s no getting around the mammoth role the guitar parts play in Jane n’ the Jungle’s new single “Lucky 7.” Compared to a lot of the other alternative rock hitting record store shelves in 2020, Jane n’ the Jungle’s music has been consistently heavier with a heady punch courtesy of riffage that is anything but a throwback to the old guard in the genre. Somewhere between 1991 and 2005, the belief that in order to be a hard rock band in modern times required going backwards from a songwriting perspective became far too common; here, this group is putting the very notion of such nonsense straight in the trash can.

The bass in this song is extraordinarily loud, arguably more than it actually needs to be, but I personally think the textural accent this element lends to the mix overall is a positive one. From the first verse to the onset of the chorus, the bassline is slithering around the guitars as if to suggest an imminent demise is quite near, but this implied tension never really goes anywhere. Is it anti-cathartic? Perhaps, but I don’t know that rock n’ roll needs a feel-good release to be smashingly evocative and emotional in 2020.

There’s nothing capable of penetrating the bond that the vocal and the percussive beat in the backdrop have in this single, and although the string parts are really powerful, the rhythm here particularly as it relates to the verses) is the true bread and butter of “Lucky 7.” It’s interesting how well Jane n’ the Jungle are able to exploit the understated qualities in their sound without coming off as compositionally mathy; at three and a half minutes total, this song is not only short and sweet but delivers more layers of discord than some EPs manage to muster.

I’ve gotten a lot picker about rock music in the last five years, and bands like Jane n’ the Jungle are what have made it possible for me to do so. “Lucky 7” presents a no-B.S. kind of attitude that has been largely missing from the mainstream rock beat in the late 2010s, and while it’s not the only song in this group’s discography to deliver an inelegant kick right in the stomach, I think it’s probably the best example of their cohesiveness as a band currently out and available to listeners.

John McCall