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JOAN JETT & BLACKHEARTS' 'Unvarnished'
from: usatoday.com
Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY
It's the rock 'n' roll icon's first album since "SINNER" in 2006.
For four decades, JOAN JETT has been the reigning queen of rock 'n' roll, with now-iconic songs that speak of falling in love, having sex and going to parties. But with age also comes wisdom, as evidenced by the more mature lyrical direction of the 55-year-old rocker's latest album, Unvarnished, out Monday.
"For me, over these past several years, there have been different transitions in life," Jett says. "Learning to grow up beyond just those experiences, and just talking about aspects of life that are different than the joyful (ones)."
Those often painful aspects include loss, growing up, and the sense of responsibility that comes with both -- topics that are wildly different from those addressed in her carefree classics such as Bad Reputation and Do You Wanna Touch Me. "It's not depressing and it's not sad," Jett is quick to say of the new album. "It's just life, you know?"
Unvarnished has been a long time coming for the rock legend, who has toured with her band, the BLACKHEARTS, for the past several years, all the while writing new material. "I went through a bit of a writer's block until I realized that I really just had to sit down and do the work," Jett says. "It doesn't just come pouring out."
Aside from collaborating with the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and her longtime writing partner/producer KENNY LAGUNA, Jett also wrote with bandmates DOUGIE NEEDLES and THOMMY PRICE, a first that she's especially excited about.
Once they finished writing in summer 2012, Jett and the band recorded the album's 10 songs (and four bonus tracks) through the fall and spring. In crafting Unvarnished, the goal was to make the record "sound representative of what you're going to hear at a live show," Jett says. In order to achieve that, the band incorporated new tracks into its live sets before even stepping inside a recording studio. This allowed them to not only get a feel for the new material in a concert setting, but also gauge audience response.
Although one track, Everybody Needs a Hero, is a notable shift stylistically -- incorporating strings, oboe and English horn -- Unvarnished still boasts the signature sound fans have come to know and love from JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS.
"That (track) may surprise some people, but in general, (the album is) probably what people would expect from us," Jett says. "Most of the songs are just straight up rock 'n' roll."
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