Jesus Jones will forever be known as the group that spawned super-duper hit “Right Here, Right Now.” The album that contained it, “Doubt,” was pretty good. What I didn’t expect was for its predecessor “Liquidizer” to be even better.

In 1989 the lines between rock/hip-hop and dance music weren’t so pronounced. It was pretty common for popular rap music to make use of guitar samples and likewise club beats found their way into rock music without raising an eyebrow. Bands like Curve, Pop Will Eat Itself and EMF embraced this sound of electronic tinged rock. (alternative rock wasn’t really a thing yet either).

“Liquidizer” is full of bouncy, poppy (yet distinctly fuzzy) songs. Singer Mike Edwards has a distinct hoarseness as he sounds like he’s singing his lungs out. The choruses on songs like “One For the Money” and “Never Enough” are super-catchy. “Broken Bones” experiments with vocal samples and inserted dialogue. “Song 13” slows things down and generates a massive wall of sound.

Definitely one of my favourite finds of the year. Jesus Jones might get labelled one-hit-wonders, but “Liquidizer” proves that they were anything but.