Danko Jones — Below The Belt

Here's a sentence from the promotional biography for this record: "So long as guys keep thinking with their dicks instead of their heads and so long as beautiful women have the power to reduce men to drooling, deviant, irrational idiots, Danko Jones records will continue to sound like Danko Jones records."

While that may seem like a good thing to most followers of the man and his identically named band, it isn't for me. I've enjoyed songs from Danko Jones' four previous albums and the My Love Is Bold EP, and there are tracks on Below The Belt that fit into that category as well. But they all start to sound too similar, as are Jones' lyrical themes dealing with his strength, sexual prowess and ability to be mean and ornery.

I've seen Danko Jones perform several times and still chuckle when I think about a comment from a friend (and like myself, somewhat of a fan) who said that the frontman's big stock stage move was to "look left." The stage show is powerful and rocks hard, but really hasn't progressed too much. And with Below The Belt, neither has Danko Jones.

If that's okay with you, you should really like this album.