No matter how hard the bourbon-soaked singer/songwriter Jesse Malin tries to forget about his glam punk past fronting New York’s D Generation, it seems like it’s always going to bite him in the ass. Mercury Retrograde is Malin’s first live album and throughout the record you can hear fans in the crowd shouting out for his former incarnation. It’s met with derision and embarrassment at first, but then Jesse sonically assures us that he still intends to kick out the jams (just with the amps turned off) on tracks like ‘High Lonesome,’ ‘Wendy’ and ‘Cigarettes & Violets’. Malin fans will no doubt swoon over this and it’s a fine addition to his already impressive canon.

Key Track: ‘Cigarettes & Violets’