Eli Young Band

The Eli Young Band is a bit of an anomaly. It's a country band, but it's not pop country like the stuff that's pilfered by American Idol contestants and pop stars posing as country artists. It's also not the hardcore sub-section championed by rebels and renegades like David Allan Coe. Rather, Jet Black & Jealous is a dyed-in-the-wool, honky tonk record that'll appeal to trucker hat wearin', waterin' hole dwellers all across this great country of ours as well as regular rock 'n roll fans that crave an itty bitty country twist on riffs!

Vocalist/guitarist Mike Eli and guitarist James Young –hence "Eli Young"—formed the band. Yhe two have a chemistry that shows up in the songwriting, since "Always the Love Songs" and "Radio Waves" are some of the most accessible, brain-infesting country songs we've heard in quite some time. The tunes take out a mortgage in your cranium and camp out there for hours at a time, thanks to their hummable, toe-tapping melodies and slice-o'-life lyrics. The requisite ballads–"Enough is Enough" and "Guinevere"—crop up here and there, but for the most part, Jet Black & Jealous is a knobs cranked album that's suitable for doin' donuts on a dirt road in Texas as easily as it is for drowning your sorrows at the nearest dive bar. The beauty of Jet Black & Jealous is the way it wholly appeals to the common man with its lyrical approach and its effective use of twangified guitars. It doesn't matter if you're not from the breadbasket of America or if you've never worn a pair of cowboy boots or a ten-gallon hat. You don't have to be country to appreciate the "rawk" kick that's omnipresent with the Eli Young Band.

— Amy Sciarretto
11.07.08

Fans of Rascal Flatts and other slick, harmony-drenched country groups will find much to enjoy about the Eli Young Band, whose songs borrow from rock and pop without ever fully exiting the country camp. The flagship track on this major-label debut is "When It Rains," a holdover from the band's independent release in 2005. Like the other 11 songs found on Jet Black & Jealous, the revamped version of "When It Rains" gleams with commercial sheen, from its polished vocals to the crisp mix of banjo, pedal steel, and electric guitar. Yet there's also a fiery quality to the song, whose twang is balanced by a set of Nashville-gothic lyrics ("It's good to see the world in pain when I take a walk outside") and rock & roll undercurrents. In fact, such moments are the real highlights of Jet Black & Jealous. This isn't country music in the tractor-driving, American flag-waving sense; it's country music with pop production and rock muscle, and the album sounds its strongest while occupying the three-way intersection between those genres. "Radio" is tailor-made for its titular medium, "Always the Love Songs" borrows an intro from the Wallflowers' "6th Avenue Heartache," and "Throw and Go" is a dark, dangerous rock song in cowboys' clothing. Jet Black & Jealous thrives on that contrast, and the Eli Young Band's official debut is promising indeed. ~ Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide