Enjoy.

Download:  Zach Barocas Interview

Previously:  Jawbox: For Your Own Special Sweetheart (Remastered and Reissued 2009)

Admittedly, I cheated on this review.  I only listened to the remastered version of For Your Own Special Sweetheart nine times before I wrote this.  But, to be fair, I’ve decided to count the decade of listens I have given the first version credit for the tenth listen.  Most of the writers here at 10 Listens could tell you a story about how Jawbox changed the way they listened to music or gave them a new penchant for rock-and-roll. A couple of them (Joe M. and Tedd, respectively) can tell you about how they played music differently after hearing FYOSS.  I can tell you that I came in late to the Jawbox party, but still made a lot of friends through the love of this album (Joe M. and Tedd, respectively). I can tell you that this was one of the albums that inspired all of us to want to write about music. Paul can regale you with his love of indie rock beginning with a copy of this album.

While all of this is true, it does not genuinely reflect the nature of this site.  The past shouldn’t matter, and the end and the means are all there is, right?  So, then, I should move diligently through the process of the remaster: the bass is turned way up, the guitars resonate more, the drums kick the ass they are supposed to and the vocals are a little cleaner.  Bob Weston did a fantastic job; top notch.  They also included their single, three extra tracks that are fantastic in their own right.  All in all, a necessary process for an amazing record.

But there is more.  There has to be.  There absolutely has to be.  There is no way to conquer a “review” of this record without discussing the past and getting personal.  And here it is: there is nothing about this record that should seem intensely personal.  The lyrics are a mish-mash of coded responses and defense mechanisms– an intrinsic pattern not exactly meant for appeal.  The drums are complicated, though impeccably timed.  The guitars are constantly moving against themselves, seemingly, and making clashes of exterior noise the norm rather than oddities.  Everything about this record is strange to digest.  Everything about it sounds like a plot against popular music.  It is cold and uninviting to the ear from the blast of feedback behind Burroughs’ William Carlos Williams’ ragged voice in “FF=66″ (codes!) to even the easily-digestible repetition in “Whitney Walks.”

And yet, invariably, this is one of the greatest, warmest, most coordinated and meticulously brilliant albums I’ve ever heard.  Yeah, that’s a complete contradiction.  But so was the sound, so was the band and so was the way the album came to be.  For Your Own Special Sweetheart is the girl in the teen romance that is dressed to not impress– the girl in dorky overalls and stupid glasses that could never catch anyone’s eye.  But the more you look at her, the more she speaks– the more she becomes Rachel Leigh Cook. The more you listen to the band’s earnest and amazing sense of timing, J’s amazing vocals, Zach impeccable snare hits, Kim’s ferocious (and now audible) bass and Bill’s sweet backing vocals and rock-outs, the more the album impresses you.  You, the listener were not supposed to love this record, and yet you simply had to.  Jawbox demanded attention and deservedly gained enough of it to make an album worth decades of critical acclaim.  They earned their reputation as influences on a generation of guitar rock.

Now, their vision is tuned up a notch. This is not merely a reissue, it is a reclamation.  Jawbox is reclaiming the ground they’ve given to the masses they imfluenced.  All of this, and they are doing it without trying to reinvent themselves or touring on tired legs– they are merely providing the rock world with a chance to hear their opus with fresh ears.  They are providing a backbeat to a not-so-distant past.  And that is why you can’t talk about this record without people telling you stories about where they first heard it, the riffs they ripped off, the effect this album had on them or, now, the joy they’ll feel when they hear a revamped version of their favorite songs.

You can’t love an album so completely, be more defined by its brilliance and talk about it like it is just another band trying to cash in on a trend of resurfacing 90s indie acts.  You can, however, listen to it over and over again, make your friends listen again and hope that a decade or more later, they get it this time.  The faults of this band and this album.  The faults, the cracks and the sense of not belonging are the exact reason this album destroys.  Enhancing the faults and cranking them up loud is the next step.  Finally, For Your Own Special Sweetheart can drone you out while you talk about how awesome it is.

Note: be sure to check out our interview with Jawbox drummer Zach Barocas in our inaugural 10Listens podcast.  Yeah, we did that.