 
Mexicolas, or one man rock band Jamie Evans, is
back with his second album The Minerva Suite.
Hailing from Birmingham it is always nice to discover
a bit of home-grown talent that doesn’t
need Piers Morgan’s approval.
Evans’s album of soulful indie-rock is full
of radio friendly nuggets that would fit nicely
alongside the drippy Coldplay or The Feeling.
Don’t despair quite so soon The Minerva
Suite is merely comparable to these in its brand
of bold epic pop music, it equally has the same
sweeping melodies and lyrical quality we have
come to expect from a Dashboard Confessional release.
The wail and gritty vocal of a song like ‘Brightest
Diamond’ sounds more like Nickleback than
most recent Nickleback tracks have managed to
accomplish. Mexicolas has the unique ability to
mimic those who came before him and yet improve
on what they created.
Thirteen songs of soulful pop-rock does though
begin to diminish itself to little more than background
music, which is a real shame because Evans has
a strong voice and is clearly a multi-talented
fellow playing and writing all the songs himself.
That’s not to say that this album doesn’t
have its strong points. When it’s good it’s
really good.
Just one of these moments is track 7 ‘Haphazardly’
whose angular guitar work and structure is reminiscent
of a Minus the Bear number. One of the longest
songs on the album Evans has chance to show off
his knowledge of melody and harmony leaving you
with the feeling that what you just heard was
anthemic in quality. It is from this point on
that the album really takes flight as the vocals
raise their standard and the guitar riffs slowly
become more edgy and distorted. Musically and
lyrically this album is nothing other than modern
classic rock as Evans repeats the cheesy line
“you’re tripping on your halo”
which would sound equally at home falling out
of the mouth of Vince Neil. Penultimate track
‘Fred Astaire’ though is by far the
best number on the record. Coming in with a hauntingly
mellow vocal, “black your eyes and let the
people stare, be my girl I’ll be your Fred
Astaire”, which builds right through the
song till an insane muse riff kicks in shocking
you into submission and awe. It’s almost
like Evans has been waiting for this moment the
whole album. It is by any definition of the word
a perfect song.
It’s when Mexicolas rises above the singer-songwriter
persona created that this albums true potential
is revealed; sadly he wavers in that territory
for too long. Evans is a talent there is no doubting
that he just needs a little help before he drowns
in the slew of radio play that chews up and spits
out so many decent artists.
This is an album of ups and downs. Mexicolas is
skilled and when you hear the piano melody on
‘Room With A View’ you won’t
doubt it, but his final words precisely encapsulate
the impression this album leaves “your bitter
sweetness goes to my head”.
3/5
Review by Lauren Mullineaux
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