Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 08/16/2005
The Jones in
the Jones Gang is
Kenney Jones, who was the drummer in
the Small Faces in the '60s,
the Faces in the '70s, and in the '80s replaced
Keith Moon in
the Who. He is the centerpiece in this band that also features such classic
rock veterans as
Bad Company's
Rob Hart and
Rick Wills, who played with
Peter Frampton's
Camel,
Foreigner, and a latter-day incarnation of
the Small Faces. Their 2005 debut album,
Any Day Now, is a bright, accomplished, professional collection of latter-day classic
rock, drawing from the traditions of the '70s and '80s, but given a modern-day gloss. While the music sounds comfortably familiar, it can't be easily pigeonholed. There's the hard-driving, anthemic opener,
"Time of Your Life," which is followed by the horn-spiked
pop tune
"Mr. Brown" and the power
ballad "Angel," which in turn is followed by the tremendously appealing, nimble acoustic tune
"She'll Never Now" and then the
psychedelic-tinged
"With You." Any Day Now keeps following these left turns, but instead of sounding like a hodgepodge, it gels because it sounds as if
the Jones Gang are revisiting everything they loved about the music they've made in the past and putting a fresh spin on it. It not only makes for an engaging, entertaining debut, but it suggests that there are any number of paths they could follow on a second record.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide