Jesse Malin: Glitter In The Gutter : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

For a guy who's still relatively under-the-radar, Jesse Malin has some big-name cohorts: Bruce Springsteen, Jakob Dylan and Ryan Adams, all of whom appear on Malin's third solo album. But those celeb cameos don't steal the spotlight from Glitter in the Gutter's brawny attack: ragged guitars meeting dabs of roots rock and big choruses, with Malin (mostly) trading his usual tales of down-and-out lowlifes for defiant, anthemic rockers. Forgettable songs are a problem: Cuts such as "Love Streams" are well hewn but not terribly interesting, and there's a lot of generic hard rock. But Glitter's best stuff is very good: There are memorable, megatuneful adrenaline shots like "Prisoners of Paradise," and two slow ones -- the Springsteen-assisted "Broken Radio" and the rather gorgeous "Aftermath" -- stand tall. Tracks like that are what iPod playlists are made for.