Fine China

Jeff Newton

Fine China's The Jaws of Life is a solid follow-up to You Make Me Hate Music.

Related Content

• The Zombies at Celebrity Theatre, 9/30/11
  October 1, 2011
• The Zombies' Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent on 50 Years of History and Their New Album
  September 28, 2011
• The Zombies are Coming!
  June 7, 2011
• The Zombies @ Celebrity Theatre
  September 29, 2011
• Totally Trashed
  January 27, 2011

More About

• Robert Withem
• Colin Blunstone
• Andy Warhol
• The Zombies (Musical Group)

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

The first thing you'll say when you see the band shot on this CD is, "These guys need more sleep and less makeup." Then you'll slip on Fine China's disc and get a solid 44 minutes of first-rate melancholia. It shouldn't work that singer Robert Withem can evoke such empathy from listeners with a limited number of notes at his disposal and a marble-mouthed delivery, but the writing and sharp word play make him sound like Colin Blunstone of the Zombies at his most considerate. There's not a duff track on this masterful follow-up to You Make Me Hate Music, and a few haunt the heart for literally days afterward, including "Rated-R Movie," one of the best sounds I've heard anywhere in a long time, and the slightly more sing-along "Skull and Crossbones," where Withem laments, "I ain't Andy Warhol, I'm not thunderstruck." You know Hedwig would've given his angry inch to come up with this one. And fans of rejection, it doesn't get any more bittersweet than someone telling you, "Everybody knows that it's not love/Are you on drugs?" (www.myspace.com/finechina or www.youmakemehatemusic.com/)