The first
Johnny Hates Jazz album to feature original vocalist
Clark Datchler since 1988's
Turn Back the Clock, 2013's
Magnetized, reunites
Datchler with original bassist
Mike Nocito. After scoring several hits with
Turn Back the Clock, including the ubiquitous radio single "Shattered Dreams," creative differences found
Datchler leaving the band to be replaced by
Phil Thornalley for 1991's
Tall Stories. That sophomore release did not fare as well as their debut and
Johnny Hates Jazz soon folded altogether. After reconnecting in 2009,
Datchler and
Nocito conceived of an album of new
Johnny Hates Jazz material with
Datchler writing the songs and
Nocito producing, as well as handling the engineering and programming. Thankfully, the group's new material sounds a lot like its old material, albeit with an added layer of maturity that only age and experience can bestow upon an artist. It also doesn't hurt that
Datchler retains all of his '80s blue-eyed-soul croon and that he and
Nocito have stuck with arrangements that have a classic '80s synth soul vibe. Back in 1988, riding a wave of MTV-era popularity,
Johnny Hates Jazz were somewhat unfairly pigeonholed as a shallow, slick, and safe studio band. Admittedly, their smooth production style, combined with
Datchler's knack for radio-friendly songwriting, was almost too perfectly suited for mainstream consumption. However, that style also masked an emotional depth influenced by such touchstones as
David Bowie,
Roxy Music, and various '70s soul artists. Here,
Datchler picks up on these old influences as he lyrically ruminates on the past, most notably on tracks like the moody title cut, on which he sings "Have I come to make amends/Are old enemies now my friends/And are you here to be my guide/To heal the wounds that I bear inside?" He delves into a similarly poignant sentiment on the ballad "The Road Not Taken," in which he wonders "The things that I could have done/The songs that I should have sung/But it wasn't that easy/The times that I could have stayed/The love that we would have made/But it wasn't that easy." Back in 1988,
Datchler sang that he wished he could "turn back the clock." Finally, with
Magnetized,
Johnny Hates Jazz take a long look back, but continue striving forward.