Ten Favorite Jack the Ripper Songs
(Imagine the Tindersticks or Nick Cave filtered through a very French, scuzzy, avant-garde, Triplets of Belleville-meets-Henry Miller sensibility, and you’ll have some idea what Jack the Ripper is offering. The band was active for roughly a decade, releasing three albums in the early 2000s—The Book of Lies, I’m Coming, and Ladies First—each better than the one before. They’re all difficult to track down on CD or vinyl these days but available digitally through their Bandcamp page. Here are my ten favorite songs they recorded, arranged in order of preference.)
I Was Born a Cancer
The Assassin
Party in Downtown
Escape
Dog Meets Wolf (the live version, on the Ladies First bonus CD)
Death of a Writer
White Men in Black
La Femme du Requin
Hush
Old Stars
— December 18, 2024