The band's second and, unfortunately, final album,
Yank Crime is as worthy and awesome as its predecessor, losing not a jot in the change from independent to major label status. Including some longer, more complex tunes this time around,
Drive Like Jehu is otherwise essentially unchanged, fusing brawling, crisp rhythms and high volume intensity with technical complexity, feeling like a mad science experiment gone completely out of control. Aside from the guest backing vocals on the frazzled angst explosion "Luau!" by fellow San Diego music fiend
Rob Crow, it's again all down to the band's four members, with drummer Trombino providing the strong, take-no-prisoners mix. Perhaps even more than the debut,
Yank Crime solidified
Drive Like Jehu's reputation as kings of emo. While use of that term rapidly degenerated to apply to sappy miserableness by the decade's end, here the quartet capture its original sense -- wired, frenetic, screaming passion -- as first semi-created by the likes of
Rites of Spring. Whether making it short and sweet, as the surprisingly gentle instrumental "New Intro" demonstrates in three minutes, or taking time, like the nearly ten-minute conclusion "Sinews," the band wastes not a note. Froberg's sense of intense, almost accusatory delivery is astonishingly dramatic throughout, whether in full cry or with a touch of restraint, as on the rhythmic chorus of "Do You Compute." His guitar partnership with
Reis is still in full cry, creating honestly epic zoned and screaming feedback roars and waves -- the aforementioned "Do You Compute" is one fine example, as is "Luau!," which builds to a awe-inspiring, eternally ascending rise. While a recording of the band's incendiary live shows would be the best way to remember the quartet,
Yank Crime is a thoroughly excellent, if unexpected, way to bow out; artistic rock that actually, honestly, and totally rocks. [Also available with bonus tracks "Bullet Train to Vegas," "Hand Over Fist," and an alternate version of "Sinews."] ~ Ned Raggett