Short Reviews [Cloud Over Jupiter (with John Shirley) - 2019 - "Short Stories For Tall Aliens"]

Here Jerry King joined forces again with Bill Jungwirth and a series of guests, but this time around he was collaborating with songwriter, vocalist, storyteller John Shirley, who is probably best known for being a lyricist for Blue Oyster Cult, providing lyrics to most of the songs on both ‘Heaven Forbid’ and ‘Curse of the Hidden Mirror’. This album finds Shirly providing vocals and lyrics (although it should be pointed out this release is mostly instrumental), and Jerry being the only constant through the rest of the album: there are even a few songs where Jerry provides all of the instrumentation himself. In many ways this is a far more consistent album than ‘5th Mass From The Sun’, with King settling into a space rock/dark ambient groove and often staying within it. This means it is actually quite a lot easier to listen to than the other release, but also it must be said less satisfying. This album contains all originals, but it would be easy to think of “In Stormland” as being a long-lost Sabbath number if it weren’t for the vocals, which I must confess to not being a fan of. The album would have had quite a different feeling if King had undertaken these himself, or brought back Michele, and I would have preferred it if he had undertaken either of those approaches. It is yet another interesting album, with some definite high points, but there is not the sense of adventure as with the other release, although fans of Hawkwind, Sabbath, and spacey psych may well get something from it. Both albums are easily available on Bandcamp so why not give them a try?