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What I Came Here For comes with a whopping big “Produced by Geordie Walker (Killing Joke)” sticker, which inspires different reactions depending just how cynical I’m feeling on that particular day. On a good day, I might want to hear it because Geordie is a really distinctive guitarist and I’m interested in what he’s up to when he’s not with Mad Jaz and gang. On a bad day, well his name tends to jump out more than Mary-Jane’s, and you wonder if trading on his name is just a little too much.
Still as soon you put this seven track EP on, you can tell from the opening
track, Lipstick, that there’s a Killing Joke connection. The tunes
might be altogether more sprightly than Killing Joke would ever dream of making,
but Geordie has definitely stamped his guitar sound on guitarist Rachel
Goulding’s playing. Love opens with some grinding Geordie-like guitar
playing, but has a Belinda Carlisle like chorus, albeit Belinda Carlisle had
she been in Lords of the New Church rather than The Go-Go’s. Mary-Jane obviously
like a big chorus as Truth is another that goes for what I will call
the Belinda Carlisle effect. Still singer Terri Flynn is more concerned with
telling us that "I want you to know the truth", rather than letting us
know that heaven is actually a place here on earth. What I Came Here For is
just messy though, with only the guitar sound redeeming it all for me.
There’s also three bonus tracks including here, including two recorded live
for the BBC. Not For The First Time has a more urgent feel whilst Overgrown opens
with a Buzzcocks guitar sound and, to be perfectly honest, sounds pretty much
like everything else here. The CD ends with an alternative version of Love which
has a real Killing Joke feel to it, with its more tribal beat, and which benefits
from having the vocals mixed a bit lower. To be honest though, by this point
I’d had enough, because overall, I’d have to say this isn’t really my cup of
tea. Still if you’ve got a thing about tattooed ladies dressed in black who
have a penchant for demanding that people know "the truth", you might find
something here you like.
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