Now I Got Worry

Like your drunk neighbors are having open mic night

Wow it’s rare that I hate something instantly. This accomplished that feat.

Still wild-out white boy blues and funk elements but trading in quirky playfulness for reckless abandonment. I like this album but it seems a little more self-aware cool than the loud and proud dorkiness that really captured me with Orange. Still a very fun record. I spent a lot of time with it.

When this album was generated to me, I got worried. This Jon Spencer Blues Explosion sounded like a genuine curiosity. Regardless of the rather opaque looking album cover, there was this thought that the album may be a hodgepodge of 90s indie excess of the worst kind. Thankfully, I had nothing to worry about. This album is rather awesome, with its erratic, jam band oddball eccentricities being put to great usage throughout its fitful 45 minutes. Give this one a listen, it may or may not be to one's taste but, when experienced, it's a plentiful time spent.

A disaster. While I enjoyed some of the guitar licks, they are wasted on these poorly written songs. The whole thing just comes off immature. As if the band was simply trying too hard to be weird and different to grab attention from the public. It is a disgrace to put albums like this next to the greats on the list, no matter how good some musicians are individually.

haha ok this is a hot ol load of Gen X shit right here! I gotta give it a 2/5 just for being so boldly awful, but I do actually really hate it

This is balls on toast. Hard pass.

This might be fun (one time) as a live show but it doesn't translate well on record. His voice sounds like a bad Elvis impersonator doing Billy Idol. It seems like they are trying to cross to many genres at once but don't connect with any of them, it doesn't work. I can hear some Jack White/LZ in there but it would be at their worst (give me Jack White anytime). This one goes nowhere for me. 1.5 out of 5, so should I give it a 1 or a 2?

At least it lets you know right up front that the entire album is going to be awful.

Chicken Dog!

This was stuck to my CD player when it came out, apparently at the start of my second year in university, though I could swear it was in the first. JSBE had played one of the best rock shows I’d ever been to at UMIST two years before, making me snarling loyal to the band. I enjoyed this record, but would’ve played it a lot even had I not. After listening the shit out of it for a few months, or maybe the year, I moved on to other records, and have played it rarely since - this was the last JSBE record I bought in the week of release. Almost 30 years on, I still like it, and find myself predicting the riffs, textures and garagey-guitar sounds just before they reach my ears. I remember Simon Reynolds comparing the relationship of JSBE and The Jesus Lizard to the great rock bands of the 70s/60s as akin to that of Tarantino to Peckinpah - this post-modern art can look nice, but where's the flair, the excitement of the new, the innovation? A contemporary issue of Melody Maker drew a line from Shellac to Lenny Kravitz via JSBE. Both arguments troubled me as much as they entertained me. But the experience of hearing this post-modern artefact from the mid-90's is a happy one: what I feared might be schtick is a work of love towards the components: big, buzzing hooks, queasy melodic runs, hypnotic blue repetition, and gigantic drumming. I've just bought the deluxe version. The instruments sound great: Russell Simins one of the most fun drummers I've ever seen, and the record is a potpourri of thick and warm guitar growl and wobble. Spencer's rambling is unironically silly, and the yelps are those of an intelligent man trying to have fun. Awkward, irritating to many - clear from most of the other reviews here - loveable to me. Hard to speak of tunes around this record, as its more a collection of riffs and textures, a murky party record that has me move my shoulders up and down as I type, which is about as extreme as my dancing has been of late. I’ve a lovely memory of my dad poking his head into my bedroom as I was putting this on, and wincing in retreat to the opening scream of “Skunk”. Four, and not just out of sentiment. I am happy that I played it twice because I wanted to, rather than out of duty... To the Effort!

Don’t advertise the blues if you aren’t playing the blues.

This jumped back and forth between annoying and awesome like 15 times. The annoying was VERY annoying, but it's probably harder to make an awesome song than an annoying one so I will bump it up half a star. 3.5 stars

Who would've thought that the band that wrote Bellbottoms, a song I enjoy immensely, would write other songs that I enjoy immensely. I can hear so many influences in bands I like coming out of this album - BDoD, VU (inspired by), Autolux even. A great modern garage rock LP

did not make it though one song

Noped out partway through the 4th song. It just sounded like noise to me. I guess I just don't get it...

Stopped listening after two and a half songs. Distracting noise. Can't work with this playing.

Solid record. Fun to listen to.

Yeah, this is cool and intense. Orange is better though.

Just way too much

White noise. Atrocious!

Reasonable songs length, reasonable album length. Seemed promising...However, the very first noise you hear on this album is screaming. Not cool. Couldn't listen to the whole thing. It made my ears hurt.

Terrible

Piss off Jon Spencer. You can't just screech into a mic and call it music. Also 1h20m of this bullshit is about 45 minutes too much. Why do you think people want to listen to over an hour of garbage noise? Piss off.

The beginning scared the shit out of me I thought Annemarie was being axed murdered downstairs. After finding out she was not being axed murdered and I had listened to about 20 more minutes of this album it gave me the urge to go on an axe murdering spree just to make sure that no one else on my street would ever have to listen to this album.

This is exactly what I like. Raw and chaotic rock music. I love the madness in it

32 tracks...... I can't stand phony over the top singers. But I love a good "Yeah" or yell in the middle of my grooves. Sometimes I feel like this guy is like a caricature of a Rock Genius. But it might be his lyrics, or that voice that is giving me pause. But by the end I was enjoying myself. I really enjoyed the band for sure, will definitely have this on in the background of a BBQ. distortion out of 5

This is the kind of music I'm doing this for. Completely unexpected and very interesting.

Oh THIS is where that whole thing started...Good thing Jack White spends so much time giving credit where it’s due or else...wait...what?

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen…Right now, I got to tell you about the fabulous, most groovy…JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION! While I probably would’ve chosen 1994’s “Orange” over this record (mostly due to personal preference), “Now I Got Worry” is more raw and aggressive than its predecessor: a gloriously ramshackle blast of furious blues-based garage rock. If you can’t handle that (and it seems quite a few of you can’t, based off of your reviews), I don’t know what to tell you…the band is called The Jon Spencer *Blues Explosion* and that’s exactly what this record is. Would you prefer a more polished explosion or something? Maybe a nice, tidy explosion for your sensitive pallet?

Incredibly unique, for better or for worse. Sometimes it comes across as groovy hi-volume punk rock with an Elvis Presley inflection, and sometimes it comes across as white people making noise for the sake of it. I can see why people would dislike it for the latter, but the former is just too intriguing for me to not enjoy. Album just kinda chugs along though, taking no time to let you digest the previous song as it hurls you into the next, and then the one after that. Herein, it makes for mainly nonsense and I can't help but shake that this sort of music is mainly built for a live crowd to just go buck wild, with little semblance of a setlist, opting for just "vibeS" (except the vibes are loud, crazy, and energy that are all off the charts).

Mon compagnon d'écoute, l'inevitable Robtupperwear m'avait pourtant prévenu: cet album est extremement dangereux. C'est néammoins empli de curiosité que je me dirigeais en cette matinée vers mon compte Spotify, pour lancer l'album du denommé Jon Spencer. D'entrée de jeu, nous avons affaire à un imposteur - l'album ne contenant pas la moindre trace de blues. A la place, un cri strident s'echappe de la bouche de Jon a intervalle irregulier, ce qui rend l'écoute pour le moins désagréable. Pour le reste, un simple album de rock underground sans aucun intérêt, une sorte de Minutemerde en un peu moins pire. Un 2 néammoins, car nous avons déjà vécu bien pire dans cette fabuleuse épopée.

nob

Quit listening

Nope, this is not the one

I did not like this very much.

This was m, quite possibly the least enjoyable time i’ve ever had listening to an album

This is just noise and screaming.

I've been listening to this since high school. I love the energy and chaos of this record. I'm not sure if this is the best JSBX record but it's the one I listen to the most. Also the video for Wail is still a good time.

For the first album of this project, it was a lot better than I expected. This is definitely a sound that I would listen to. I enjoyed their song in Baby Driver ("Bellbottoms") and I didn't expect them to go so hard in this album. Will definitely be checking out some of their other songs. As for this album, I enjoyed many of the songs. The songs are quite cathartic, I enjoy a singer who has a powerful voice. The songs are very "grungy". They sound quite unpolished and noisy, but in a very good way. I also very enjoyed the Radio ad's included in the album. I am a sucker for "spoken songs" or just straight up "voice clips". I ended up saving "Judah Love Theme", "Sticky", "Love All Of Me", and "Skunk". But I imagine I will add more as I listen to this album again.

I've been waiting to get this album since I saw it was in the bottom ten of the entire book for a while. Not trying to be contrarian, but I really enjoyed this. This album is some dirty blues. I can see how it would be abrassive to some, especially on the first few tracks, but once you get into the madness, it's easy to get lost in. Favorite tracks: "Chicken Dog", "Hot Shit", "R.L. Got Soul"

weird but good!

Loved it. Nothing to worry about, explosions can sometimes be a good thing!

Raw garage-rock, sounded a lot like The Stooges and bands of that ilk. Really lively and exciting sounds, plenty of punk attitude and cool guitar and I like his singing style. I would love to mosh to tracks like 'Wail' in a club. Some of the experimental tracks are interesting but unnecessary and make the album a bit too long. On the whole though, some great stuff, I really enjoyed it.

I almost made the mistake to rate this album a 1 by just listening the screaming of the first song but, i always like to give another chance before the rating and was not disappointed. This is surely not a gold record in the sense of lyricism by any means but, it's still a fun experimental rocking live sounded type of record. Never heard of this band before in my life but i'll definitely give this more listens in the near future.

One hell of a fun album. Greasy, messy rock and roll. I have their album Acme, but this sounds quite different. Compares at times to The Cramps. Garage rock at its best. 4 🌟

I've never really explored JSBE. Every once in a while I hear one of their songs and think "damn, why didn't I ever listen to these guys." This whole album was like that.

45 Minutes of absoloute chaos, I absolutely loved it. I have crossed paths with TJSBE (as I assume fans call them) many times over the years (notably of course from Baby Driver) but never sat down to listen to them, despite knowing it would be my kind of thing. But that's what projects like this are all about right, to help you get round to all these artists and I'm so glad I did with this one. There's a lot of good riffery and songcraft in here, its just hidden behind the noise on purpose and strung together in a way which is a hell of a brave move to make and one I respect immensely. The songs are short and never outstay their welcome and the amount of influences on show are staggering. This is great stuff. 4/5

Dirty mutant blues n' roll.

Well fuck my bleeding ass harder than you ever have before, it's only me old mate Jon Spencer with one of the greatest pieces of music to ever penegrate my hairy hoop. Fuck me. Fuck everyone.

the name is a bit of a red herring. this was far better than the white man does delta blues i was expecting.

I really enjoyed this. Dunno when I'd go back go it but a great example of something you might only hear because of this list. Absurd. Ecclectic sound. Definitely not for everyone but very fun.

Noisy AF but completely exhilirating

Great album, but no idea why this one has been include instead of the one before: consensus album Orange, which is definitely 5 star and was a bit hit at the time with lots of buzz.

I think this deserves a 4. There is lots of invention and experimentation happening here, both in terms of the playing and arranging, and also in the studio work. It's playful and exuberant but also I think the end result is pretty good. I think I will put this on again some time. A good record from a band I never heard of until this listen.

Really enjoyed chunks of this - some brilliant guitar but found it dragged a little - there’s an amazing 10 track album in here - a very very strong ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Not bad punk, but as always, exhausting.

The reviews made me a little nervous, it’s definitely weird, but I kinda dug it

skunk foht schomol mitme afoch huuuere unchillige schrei ah okay? aber de song isch recht geil. identify isch huuere churz punk time geil. wail geils riff und sehr geile strophengitarre. wail banger moll. fuck shit up chli weird? 2 kindsa love intressante giti sound? aber jo ähm wa love all of me hani nöd so gfühlt. Chicken dawg isch defür recht e cools riff und sehr geili gitarresounds. ok cant stop isch en echte blues firefly child findi de best bis etz glaub d gitarre isch no cool. eyeballin findi mässig geil. s isch s ganze album bis etz afoch chli komisch ahgressiv und chli z wenig hooks und songs. conclusion: ich bin definitiv kein noiserock guy und das isch keis guets album.

Unlistenable.

Yuck. Just a noise!

Enfoiré

Just couldn't get into it. I'm not sure how this is a must-listen.

Was Yoko Ono the inspiration?

Wow. Esto se siente vivo.

Interesting alternative. Like gorillaz, but earlier

Wow! Awesome! High energy!

10/10 One of the best modern rock bands

Første møte med dette bandet — wow!!

Fucking great album!

This needed a bit of time to settle in but holy moly it's worth preserving. Big Presidents of the US, Beck, kinda chaotic QOTSA, Dave Graney energy.

I WILL ALWAYS 5 STAR JSBE

5 stars!! Fucking LOVE this album! Jon Spencer at his best! There is not a bad track on this record!

belbottom! belbottom! belbottom!

Big fan of JSBX since high school when I bought an LP of "Orange" cause Beck was on the track "Flavor" and was blown away by the rest. Ended up seeing them multiple times in concert, and you better believe they were great live. This album is like the apex of their creative peak from Orange through Acme, where they really started blurring genre barriers and experimenting more in the studio. It kinda surprises me there's so much disdain for this album on here, when the line between this and The White Stripes, etc. is absolutely clear. Yeah, it's a ton more aggressive and chaotic, but those are good things in my book when it comes to rock n roll.

unhinged, experimental, and fun

Aaahhhhaaaaahhhh! Top album from begin to end. Love the energy, the variation, the combination of modern blues, straight rock and noise, the length of songs (usually 3 minutes maximum, no 20 minutes phychedelic stuff). Clear that he liked the same Industrial/Punky/Bluesy stuff I do and he combines it in a really good album Chicken Dog, the fun song Fuck Shit Up and the frightening Sticky (reminds me of the Deaf album by Foetus, DIY music!) my favorites.

This is an awesome blending of genres. It has elements of punk, blues, jazz, even some 90s hip-hop beats and record scratches. It makes me want to hear more by this artist.

Good but not groundbreaking.

Another surprise home run that makes me so glad I started this project! I had heard of this band before, but somehow never listened to them. I don't know exactly what I *thought* they were, but it certainly wasn't the awesomeness that I just had the pleasure of hearing! This album is searing, aggressive, technical, and so damned fun. it starts with a weird, primal scream and gets weirder from there. At no point did I ever *really* know what I was listening to, it's so unique and unlike anything else I've heard. Although I could definitely hear the blues inspired riffing in the guitars, this album is more unabashed in-your-face rock than anything else. An easy 4.5 stars, a hidden gem, and one of the most pleasant surprises I've had in the 80+ albums I've reviewed

so cool

An unexpected treat. It's raw and chaotic, with bits of Iggy Pop and Captain Beefheart pulsing throughout. I saw the low reviews and feared the worst, but this was a belter.

Some very bluesy wailing delivered with a lot of force-bordering-on-abuse. I guess I was feeling musically masochistic, because much to my surprise I found myself really enjoying this album.

This was great! Loved it!

perfect album

I like the energy here. Madness combined with noisy guitars.

BOOM

o filho de mick jagger com o sonic youth

I weirdly liked biking around Chicago to this punk blues. Albums too long but it wouldn't be a blues album if it wasn't.

This bangs, may be my favourite Jon Spencer album

Interessantes Album

-This album was quite cool. A couple solid jams. -"Skunk," "Identity," and "Wail" were all solid

Really much better than I expected. I think the premise is "What if we played blues music, but in as alt-rock?" Overall it works much better than I would have expected and is entirely enjoyable. I'd never listened to this before, and I found it to be well done. I'd come back for seconds.

Lekkere deuntjes wel nogal gehaast.

wow really cool and unique

A review for this album described it as being smacked in the head with sound. I'd have to agree. However, as bad as that sounds, I really enjoyed the album! Cool fusion of genres

4 stars for having the balls to be The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: A band that needs to exist. I love the band and the attitude, but I found it hard to get through the whole album in one sitting.

Feels like the soundtrack to a movie where the protagonist sort of has a handle on things but soon falls in love and rethinks his dangerous lifestyle.

Very experimental, but sounds nice

Noise rock and noise punk I'm familiar with, but noise blues... that's a new one. It was always an interesting record, if not always "good", necessarily. But man, when it slapped, it SLAPPED.