Jesus Jones's new album, 'Per-verse,' continues to break ground in the new genre of rave-meets-rock bands. Like the band's paint-splashed video for the album's first single. "The Devil You Know," Perverse is politically provocative, varied in its musical colors and a bit messy. With so many albums sounding the same all the way through, it's amazing to hear a record with the first death-metal rave song, the oooh-we're-scary "Spiral," and the equally innovative technological warmth (yes, warmth) of "Zeroes and Ones," an anthem for a generation that grew up with computers and multiculturalism.

Even more amazing is how Perverse deals with the common complaint (mostly from Black Crowes and Tesla fans) that dance music is killing rock & roll because it is oblivious to rock's rich history. Extreme didn't do a half-bad job on its Beatlesque antiwar song "Rest in Peace," but Jesus Jones isn't content to rely on 1993-relevant lyrics like that band's "make love not war sounds so absurd to me." Jesus Jones's music, not merely its lyrics, sounds relevant to 1993. The group's antiwar song "From Love to War" is the first techno-based song that evokes a Beatlesque melody and counterculture consciousness without sampling the Beatles. It's really pretty. Actually it seems that Jesus Jones thinks it's just a fine thing to like the Beatles, because "From Love to War" isn't the only Beatles evocation on Perverse. In "The Devil You Know," the sitars sound at once like a familiar experiment and yet very new.

It's hard to say if "The Devil You Know" will become as popular as "Right Here, Right Now," the huge hit from Jesus Jones's 1991 album, Doubt. If not, "Get a Good Thing" may well do the trick: The band sounds optimistic about a new lover – or maybe just about life and the hopes and dreams ahead. (RS 650)

JILL BLARDINFELL