The Living End (Jandek album)

The Living End is the eighteenth album by Jandek and the only release of (1989). Corwood Industries #0756 continues the bluesy band sound of the prior two albums, but adds a new, thinner-voiced female vocalist to the mix.

1 Overview
2 Track listing
3 Album cover description
4 External links

[edit] Overview

The band from You Walk Alone and On the Way is back, and they've got something new! In addition to more tracks in the tighter, more "straight" blues styles of the past few albums, they have also added a new female singer.

She's not on the first side, though, which opens with a sequence of "walking blues," starting with "Niagra Blues," which wraps oblique lyrics ("Sometimes go to Niagra (sic)/sometimes go to the grave") around what seems to be the same song as the second track, "Janitor's Dead." That song seems to be a sequel to "The Janitor," from all the way back on Later On, though it's possible that it's unrelated. It has lyrics even MORE out there ("stabbed a tumor through your heart...window's broken overhead/they told me janitor's dead.") so it may just be 'one of those songs.' Things get even stranger on "Slinky Parade," which starts out, "Jesus Christ, Randolph Scott/Bob Dylan and his mother, Dusty Springfield/came on the road one day/marched a slinky parade into my eye" before begging "let me be a Christian ram." It could almost BE a Bob Dylan song, but rarely was Dylan as far out as this. That leads through three more similar tracks ("License to Kill" says "I got a license/to kill myself/wanna die die die" before changing to "wanna live live live" right at the end). Then there's a brief instrumental and THEN...

It's a new female vocalist. This is obviously not "Nancy" (voice is too thin, missing the bluesy timbre Nancy had) and the girl seems a bit uncomfortable. She struggles through all the same, and does fit the music at many times. The songs, in manner of the albums before them, continue to include the "standard" lead and rhythm guitar (with occasional bass) fronting a slightly off-rhythm drums.Though often difficult to decipher, her vocals provide an interesting twist and the band adds many lounge elements to the music, making "Girl From America" sound like "The Girl From Ipanema" twisted inside out. This "loungey" style would continue into the next two albums.

[edit] Track listing

Niagra Blues – 3:46
Janitor's Dead – 3:11
Slinky Parade – 4:31
The Living End – 2:25
License to Kill – 2:38
Talk That Talk – 6:28
Start the Band – 1:41
Girl From America – 1:56
Embrace the World Outside – 2:08
In a Hush – 2:50
Take Me Away With You – 7:05
Crazy – 4:23

[edit] Album cover description

A full-on, close-up, black and white shot of the man himself, hair uncombed, mouth slightly open, against a plain white background. Or almost plain white: in some places the background was clearly cut away, but in other places faint gray streaks are visible. This is the definitive photo of Jandek, the one to bring with you when you camp out at the Corwood P.O. box or wander the streets of Houston looking for him. -- Seth Tisue

Jandek wearing a pea coat? Jandek is older in this photo than any previous photo. He is sporting some sort of lesion on his lower lip... Slight circles under his eyes.