Jesse Malin – Mercury Retrograde

The first thing to point out is that this is one of those trickiest of releases: a live album (for further discussion of the pros and cons of these, see our forum here. So anyway, Jesse and chums hosted two nights in New York last Christmas as a festive celebration, and recorded them with a view to making this record at the same time, now duly edited into a cohesive whole and released in time for this Christmas. Neat.Malin explains, during one of his many reasonably entertaining between-song talky bits, that "the fun thing about this show is that we're gonna do different versions and arrangements (...) You get to play the songs the way that you wrote them". It's therefore clear, right from the off, that this is an album that is going to work best for people who are already fans of Jesse Malin. Someone like me who is thus far unfamiliar with any of Malin's previous recorded output will not get the fun of being able to compare live, stripped-down versions against his original releases, as intended, although can still enjoy the songs in the contexts in which they are here performed.As well as presenting the tracks with new arrangements, Malin also offers more information to fans in the form of little explanations, with which he prefaces certain songs. So ‘Hotel Columbia', from 2004's The Heat is, he tells us, about a time when he was staying in a creepy European hotel on tour, while feeling that he was missing out the ‘normal' life being lived by his friends back home, while ‘Cigarettes & Violets' from 2002's Fine Art of Self-Destruction is described as "... about being in love with somebody who's a big mess. Then it ends, and you realise "that's why I liked them"."He plays a range of songs from each of his solo albums The Fine Art of Self-Destruction (2002), The Heat (2004), Glitter in the Gutter (2007), as well as some cover versions from 2008's On Your Sleeve covers album - notably the appropriately festive/maudlin ‘Fairytale of New York' with which the album ends. A seasonal feel is also lent to the album by Malin's between-song references to the joys of Christmas in New York, even for one as non-religious and Jewish as he, and the inclusion of ‘Xmas', again from The Fine Art.So this is a nice, Christmassy, warm and celebratory listen, with a relaxed Malin clearly delighted to be playing to a home audience. The vocals often veer to the strangely-annunciated and strangulated-of-vowel, which can jar a little (does he do this on his non-live stuff too?), but ultimately doesn't detract enough to stop this being likeable and mellow. Does it give you a good introduction to Jesse Malin? Probably not: for that you would clearly be better off starting with his studio albums; but as a purchase for a confirmed fan, then it passes muster. 68%  Jesse Malin on MySpace