Album Reviews

Jim & The French Vanilla is the solo project of Jim Blaha from The Blind Shake. While “Afraid Of The House” is already the man’s third solo outing, it is likely to be the first one you’ve heard about. Not because you suck at finding new music, but because it seems like Blaha tried his hardest to not have people find out about his albums by making them CD-R only and limited-to-100LP.

While those first two albums were acoustic one-man-band affairs, “Afraid Of The House” finds Blaha surrounded by a full band. And the results are pretty friggin’ amazing. While decidedly less psychedelic than The Blind Shake, the songs still have this Trump-like quality about them. Meaning they sound like they come from another planet. They are also short, energetic, wild and catchy. Reminding me of early Raveonettes one moment and Future Of The Left minus the snarky attitude the next, there is a lot to fall in love with here.

Track listing:

1. When You're Down
2. I'm Just Sitting Here
3. Back Home
4. Take It To The Grave
5. Not Even War
6. Eye For An Eye
7. Grow Like Rabbits
8. Psychic Killer
9. I Have To Slow Down
10. Green Curtains
11. Lonely Man