Joan of Arc “Meaningful Work B/W The Thing In Things 7-inch”

Joan of Arc
“Meaningful Work” B/W “The Thing In Things” 7-inch
Polyvinyl Records

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved getting things in the mail. It must be the similarities it holds to Christmas, what with the unwrapping and the free-ness of the gift/mail item. I don’t mean to brag, I just feel pretty damn lucky that my “job” (music journalist) brings with it the perk of getting several packages a day full of LPs, CDs, 7 inch singles, DVDs and even sometimes books when I’m lucky. I’m so grateful. I love not knowing what’s going to be waiting for me when I hit the mailbox each day. Example: today I was shot straight back to the late 90s when I pulled this new Joan Of Arc 7 inch out.

My first thought was “Wow, I didn’t even know Joan Of Arc was still a band!” But despite my lack of knowledge of this band’s career, these dudes have steadily been putting out records since they dropped off my radar in the late 90s. I wikipedia-ed them. I always lumped these guys in with other bands whose record layouts were always far superior to their music. I’m talking about bands like The Promise Ring, Cap N’ Jazz, Juno and Jimmy Eat World. Actually I’ll take Jimmy Eat World over any of those bands any day. Although they might be a guilty pleasure, it could have something to do with having slept on lead singer Jim’s floor several times in the early 2000′s while on tour. He was always really good to us. Anyways, I remember always thinking records by those bands I mentioned above were gonna be cool cuz they had such cool packaging or such clean looking lay-outs, but rarely was I not bummed out by that genre. Fuck, I just realized that there was really NOTHING going on in the late 90′s and early 2000′s.

Well, I threw this slab of wax down on our turntable and unfolded the 7 inch cover into the giant poster that it is. Cool poster, they still have well done and expansive artwork.. CHECK! In fact I would put this poster on the wall if it wasn’t code for GIANT PUSSY. Sonically and songwriting-wise not much has changed since the late 90s it seems for Joan Of Arc, although I was never a huge fan so I could be way off on that. All I know is… this kind of music still doesn’t connect with me. Maybe it’s because I didn’t attend college. I bet if I had my master’s in Latin I’d totally understand what they were trying to do here. In my eyes what we have here is: No riffs, boring dictionary reading lyrics, weak melodies and zero payoff. In other words Joan of Arc is W3.

W3 = Weenie, wordy and really WHITE!

But yeah, if you were once a fan (or if you’re still a fan) of these guys or this type of thing… you’ll be stoked cuz it sounds exactly like I expected it to. It’s not offensive, very unmemorable and…. whoa, I just fell asleep. The bummer part is that I’m sure the dudes in the band are really cool and total sweethearts, so I hate to give their band a bad review. But I really don’t connect with this type of music and I have a responsibility to the readers of this site to be honest. Plus here’s an mp3, everyone can form their own opinion and write that opinion in the comments below. Imagine all the people… having their own opinions.

Axl isn’t down with these dudes AT ALL! He doesn’t even know what this is.

1. Meaningful Work
2. The Thing In Things (MP3)