Jane Jensen

Burner (Sonic Cheeka)
by Jamie Kiffel

With the hushed commands “relax..” and “come here….”, powder-voiced axegirl Jane Jensen rocks hard, a fetishy little doll whispering deliciously over grinding chords. With lines like “It doesn’t have to burn/it doesn’t have to sting/it doesn’t have to mean a thing,” it’s hard not to picture Jensen’s anime-pixie diamond chin grinning over sinner boys in chains. On the other side of the equation, she unnecessarily hypes up the Stones’ “Miss You,” but deserves points for gender-bending hard enough to raise erotic thoughts of a young Mick Jagger.

“Rock That” is a weirdly hip-hop number; Jensen seems to be finding herself with tracks like “Save the World,” which features more strange ghetto back-up vocals, and “Sick of Losing” is such a dancefloor number, it reeks of sweaty rubber soles. There are even hints of Jesus Jones’ trippy beat mixes in here. But “Candy & Razor Blades” smells strongly of Ani DiFranco, and why not? Like DiFranco, Jensen won’t let a small voice hold her back from making boys quiver.
(www.janejensen.net)