JANE III

3.5 stars really!!

As usual , this album holds another line-up change with members leaving to form other bands but coming back soon after their new adventures did not work out. In this case it is the KB player but he will be back by the next album. Fellow reviewer Ian Gledhill is right to denounced the fact that Keyboards are missing bar some piano on Way to Paradise.

Some people denounce this album as weaker because of this lack of KB , but I find I enjoy more tracks on this one than the pevious Here We Are and the following Lady. Many blistering guitar heroics with twin leads is the novelty but this does not change the sound that much and one can spot the typical Jane sound. Again a lenghty opener in Comin' Again makes for a great plunge into JaneWorld. Early In The Morning Jane Session, R'nR Star and Mother makes this album an enjoyable hard-rock with prog leanings listening adventure.

Hardly essentail for a proghead but all early Jane albums can please , but especially those who enjoy similar Birth Control , Wallenstein , Uriah Heep and many more.

One thing you can never accuse JANE of and that is of having a different lineup on many of their albums. "Jane III", IMHO is a horribly overlooked album that takes the rawness of their debut album "Together" and mixes it with a slightly more guitar rock aura creating a great album full of psych acid guitar and dark melodies. I personally love this album from start to finish and like its rawness and deep driving progressive jams. Without a question this album will equally appeal to lovers of 70's guitar rock as it does those slightly more progressively inclined. This is a great album to turn up loud and let the speakers do the talking and represents another great album having been produced by no one other than Conny Plank.

Jane III is an often maligned release due its simplistic, bluesy nature and lack of keyboard wizardry, but persistence and an open mind shows this to be a psychey, guitar oriented album with an essence of spaciness throughout. Opening with the lengthy 'Comin' Again', a two chord wonder built on 'leslied' guitar, Klaus Hess' trademark solo guitaring, and a plodding rhythm section to make it somewhat heavy, but this monster of a song is very addictive and seems to hold the attention over its 9min40 duration (as long as one is not waiting to hear a riff in 11/8...). In many cases, the mix on the vocals is quite spacey, probably because they are echoed and kind of 'behind' the music. Bassist Charlie Maucher handles most of the vox with a gritty raspness but they barely have an accent, drummer Peter Panka sings lead on one track ('Way To Paradise') and has a strong accent - in both cases, this does not pose as a problem at all. 'Mother You Don't Know' is a bluesy tune with slight 'cosmic' touches, 'I Need You' is a very catchy tune (re-titled 'Rest of my Life' on the classic live 'At Home' dbl LP) and will have you singing the chorus in a flash - quite an achievement for a German underground band. 'Way To Paradise' is a pleasant ballad, and the only song to have some piano playing.

Side 2 starts with 'Early In the Morning', a solid rocker full of searing guitaring with excellent left/right speaker panning (no doubt courtesy of the late, GREAT Conny Plank), and those spacey vox, 'Jane Session' is an excellent instrumental jam that 'cooks', but I feel it's a bit short, 'Rock 'n' Roll Star' is similar to EITM with it's dense, guitar-heavy approach, 'King of Thule' is a very brief (0.40) dual guitar theme which is cool, and 'Baby, What You're Doin'' is a simple pub-rocking blues tune and weakest thing on the album. Nothing complex, but a straight-up, solid Germanic rock offering (i.e. their least progressive release) and quite enjoyable from time to time. 3 stars.

THIS IS AN ''AMERICANIZED'' JANE!

JANE III is quite different from their first 2 albums. Looking at the cover design, one might believe we are on our way to prog heaven. On the contrary, JANE changes it musical format to become a hard rock band with prog leanings and not a prog band with hard rock leanings like it was on TOGETHER and HERE WE ARE!

First of all, the keyboards have vanished: Nadolny left with his mellotron and organ not to be replaced. MAUCHER is back on bass as Wolfgang KRANTZ plays guitar along KLAUS HESS.There is nothing on this album that can be compared with what they released in the past. This is blues music, boogie music, well in the american vein from the time , real heartland spirit .

The first track COMIN' AGAIN is a long, long 9 mns jam that never seems to end as it become repetitive after a while,only played over the same 2 guitar chords. Music for smoky pubs with everybody stoned in the attendance.MOTHER YOU DON'T KNOW is a rather forgetable hard rock track with no originality whatsoever, the kind you have heard 10 000 times before. To make it more sounding mid-west, Maulcher handles the vocals with no finesse. He is not a singer, this is raw, raw raw as he has smoked 2 packs of Marlboro before singing ( or maybe he was still smoking)

Things are getting better with I NEED YOU, not that it is a masterpiece but at least it's pleasant listening with a simple but nice melody.WAY TO PARADISE is the best track of the album; PANKA the drummer sings on this one and this is definitely an improvement over MAULCHER. This is a nice acoustic ballad played gracefully that could have been featured on the first 2 albums.

But jammy hard rock is back in force with EARLY IN THE MORNING, more stoned music for the one who like this kind. JANE- SESSION is another jam, at least more pleasant as it is somewhat spacey with some good psychedelic guitar solo reminding me of HAWKWIND a little bit...and there are no vocals on this track!!!! Not bad, but this is only a long guitar solo after all.The following track ROCK N ROLL STAR ( you don't expect any prog with a title like that, do you?) stays in the same mould, regular second zone americanized style hard rock.The same sadly goes for the last track. BABY WHAT YOU'RE DOIN?...very prog title again.

This is hard to imagine this is the same band that recorded this album and their first two. Clearly, as JANE III was to be released as their first album in the USA, ths band thought that by ''amercanising '' their music, they would have a chance to hit it big time! Of course, no such thing would happen.

JANE III is DEFINITELY NOT the album to start with if you want to discover this band. I owned it for collection purpose, listen to it for this review but i don't think i am going to play it again in the foreseeable future ( unless i decide to get stoned, but no chance of that!)

1.5 STARS.

Oh boy! The descent to the abyss was quite abrupt with "Jane". From great to below average. All this in two years time.

You really need to avoid this album. Vocals are terrible, but music is not great either. I guess that the nadir is achieved with "Mother You Don`t Know". A heavy, bluesy, hard-rockish and uninspired song. Where has the good old psyche/space rock gone to ?

Things get better with "I Need You" : IMO, it is the best track out here but far to be a highlight. The soft and acoustic "Way To Paradise" is not bad either but to refer to an acoustic track to be a highlight of a "Jane" album is rather annoying. This is not the genuine "Jane" as far as I'm concerned. Sounds very much as "Lady ...Jane" from the "Stones".

Some good psychedelic sounds are featured during "Early In The Morning". Hard-rocking space-rock as "Eloy" could play in their very early work; but the history of these two German bands will be cross-linked pretty soon. But that's another story.

The same sort of mood applies during the instrumental "Session". A strong rocking number. "Jane" finally gets back to their roots. Fabulous guitar work for this crazy number. One of the few highlights because the rest of this album won't feature any good song.

Two little stars.

A band with constant revolving door line-ups, the sudden departure of keyboard player Werner Nadolny from German rock band Jane meant the sound of their eventual third album in 1974 would be powered by guitars. Acid, psychedelic and hard rock still dominate, no surprise as those are all part of the usual Jane template, but perhaps `Jane III' was still their least ambitious album to date at the time. However, although the lack of keyboards and that beautiful glistening Hammond organ from their previous discs means `III' is initially quite disappointing from a progressive rock standpoint, patient listeners will still find a decent collection of Seventies rock tunes with plenty of instrumental fire to interest them here.

Just listen to the way the bass murmurs in constant delight throughout the plodding opener `Comin' Again', with repetitive guitars strums chiming into infinity and Charly Maucher's mud-thick bass and rough-as-guts vocals slurring through the mix. There's definitely a stoned, wasted Krautrock lethargy to the thick atmosphere, but the manic rising guitar solo in the finale is quite joyous and transcending. Dusty bluesy fire grooves through `Mother You Don't Know', `I Need You' starts as a dreamy ballad that grows in gutsy power as it moves on, and nice piano and acoustic guitar floats through weary ballad `Way to Paradise'.

`Early in the Morning' is wailing acid rock with oceans of electric guitar feedback and some very hazy hallucinogenic panning feedback back and forth in the mix to really bring your mind grinding to a halt! `Jane-Session' starts as a mellow jam with just a hint of droning menace before guitars rage in every direction as it builds in tempo. While the tune of `Rock N Roll Star' is pretty unmemorable, it picks up during a fuzzy heavy psychedelic second half, `King of Thule' is a brief regal instrumental, and `Baby What You're Doin' closes the album, a stomping grooving rocker with a fairly inane boogie chorus, but it's throwaway fun in a fairly brainless way.

`Jane III' is a good little rock album from a great psychedelic hard rock band, and while they made better (and slightly proggier!) albums, this is still a fine collection of rocking tunes and great playing, with a welcome heavy wasted quality throughout the entire disc. The gorgeous psychedelic artwork makes it just a little better as well - lucky those who have it on vinyl!

Three stars.