Album Review: Jakob Mind – The One Who Got Away

Want an album that’s full of high energy, powerful, melodies? An album that brings together anger, melancholy, darkness and light. Punk rock, punk-pop? Call it what you want. An album that frantically chugs along with guitars and beats perfect for long drives through the night, for hyping you up before a gig? Then look no further.

Jakob Mind is Jakob Arvidsson – singer/guitarist with Sweden’s Rotten Mind. A well established part of Sweden’s punk scene, Arvidsson also played in hardcore band Agent Attitude who called it a day in 2015. Arvidsson quickly formed Rotten Mind who to date have released four albums. Four albums full of frantic energy and attitude. Each a small progression on the last, each delving deep into the catchy punk sounds from ’77 & ’78, sharp guitars and choruses that hook you right into the moment. 2020’s ‘Rat City Dog Boy’ receiving quality reviews with it’s perfect blend of classic punk and new wave. Following this Jakob Arvidsson recorded some solo tracks “just for the sake of it” but once heard by others the demand was there for more. Here it is. “The One Who Got Away” – 29 minutes of distorted melodies that really need to be pumped out at maximum volume. It’s not hard to hear the distant sounds that have seeped into Arvidsson’s mixed up mind. Buzzcocks, The Boys, a bit of surf punk, some 60’s garage all boiled up together and allowed to slowly set into one solid block of no-nonsense punk rock ‘n roll.

Album opener ‘The One Who Got Away’ sets the tone perfectly. Melancholic guitars dropping us straight into furiously fast, obscenely catchy beats overlaid with Arvidsson’s unmistakeable vocal delivery. The single ‘Watch The City Burn’ is a blunt, honest, energetic slice of straight forward punk rock in memory of a friend that passed away.  ‘Let Them Know’, garage rock n roll at it’s finest that brings a raw 60’s vibe straight into 2021 would have been comfortably at home on 60’s TV show Ready, Steady, Go.

Splitting the album neatly into two halves ‘Little Evil One’ is an instrumental that’s the perfect soundtrack to dark nights spent travelling alone. A track that can dredge up buried emotions yet at the same time propel you forward with the knowledge of light at the end of a dismal tunnel. 

If the first half of “The One Who Got Away” is full of frantic, high energy, melodic punk the tracks following ‘Little Evil One’ see a more experimental, slower side with ‘On The Floor’. ‘Too Fast To See’ reintroduces the supercharged, bittersweet straight to the point power punk pop before closing track ‘I Don’t Wanna Be (Around) You’ slices right through you with it’s sharp, intense guitars and sing-a-long chorus.

Whether an album grabs you immediately because of it’s lyrics or if you’re first hooked in by the beats, guitars and melodies “The One Who Got Away” is one of those albums you just need in your life. Fans of Rotten Mind will love it, continuing as it does, the subtle moves they’ve developed towards quality, catchy songs that blend so many punk rock influences into one immensely enjoyable sound. Likewise if you were brought up on a diet of classic punk and new wave and appreciate some of the pop sensibilities of 90’s indie then “The One Who Got Away” could well become your modern day favourite album. My one wish after hearing this is that we get a chance to hear these songs played live. Late February and I reckon I might have now heard my favourite album of the year.

“The One Who Got Away” is released on Lövely Records on April 16th and can be pre-ordered from Bandcamp here in both digital and limited edition clear vinyl formats, but you’ll need to be quick to get the latter. At the time of writing less than 20% were left. For those not living in Sweden Lövely Records have arranged a very favourable postage rate to Europe, the US and around the globe.