Wait, a new FOCR record already? It feels like about four weeks since the last one, and that was a full album too. Yet here comes Jolly Joker (#49 and the penultimate entry in the Doomed Babe series… sigh), another full-length from the endlessly productive Friends of Cesar Romero camp.

But this one is a little different. In fact, it caught me off guard.

The ten songs here come from a John Peel-style radio session and were previously released. Judging by the track selection, which pulls mostly from FOCR’s 2016 to 2018 era with a few early ’10s cuts like Skull Carpenters, Girls in Prism, and Tammys of Tomorrow, this session likely dates from the pre-COVID years. So instead of fresh material, we get a batch of familiar FOCR songs captured live on tape. That twist turns out to be the whole point. These versions strip things down to the grit and nerves that sit at the core of J Waylon’s doomed love stories.

And it works. However rough around the edges these recordings may be, FOCR sound like they are playing with a small fire burning under the microphones. The songs hit harder, the heartbreak feels less theoretical.

Did we need another reminder of how good the FOCR universe can be? Not really. But Jolly Joker is a fun and welcome one anyway.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp