Calmed Down Nylon Jail Reign Supreme On Their Third Album
From the first notes of the album Kings of the Weaklings, a typical guitar sound spiced with country and electronics sounds, with the unmistakable rasp of the singer Jiřin. The band's third consecutive album was created for the ten-year anniversary of the rebels from Olomouc, CR, and the experience is evident on the recording. The author duo Jiřin Jirák and Roman Vičík invited a number of guests for the recording, such as Roman Vícha (Ewa Farna), Jakub Vejnar (Hudba Praha), Antonín Dlapa (Prago Union), Michaela Štaffová (ex-Nylon Jail) or Adriana Asseff Rodriguez (Duende). The easily identifiable Nylon Jail took a slightly different route this time. Not so predatory, but all the more diverse.
The recording of the Kings of the Weaklings album began in January 2022 as a ten-year anniversary present. The band therefore took a trip through time. In addition to new songs, the album also contains songs that began to be written many years ago and ended up in a drawer.
"The third album took the longest time to make and is of course my favourite because it is the newest", says guitarist and author Roman Vičík. "The main theme for me is the uncertainty of the time in which it was created. The impossibility of controlling the situation because the driving forces are more powerful than will. And our reaction to all the events around us, which transcend us and which until recently existed only in the world of fantasy, is a bittersweet and opulent birthday party. Bittersweet, but to the fullest!"
The title of the whole album is a reference to one of the songs called King of the Weaklings, which is actually the main message of the record. In the first level it criticizes the stupid and deluded "majority". That mass of society that populist politicians essentially need to achieve their goals. Local know-it-alls, stupid stadium brawlers, conspiracy theorists. In the latter, it positions the band as advocates for those who refuse to predatorily claw their way to the top of the food chain using any means available.
This time, Nylon Jail took a slightly different path musically than on the last and the previous record. This album differs from the previous ones, but maintains the authentic sound of the band. And this makes Jiřin, the lyricist and singer of Nylon Jail, especially happy: "I'm glad we don't walk the beaten paths and we are not afraid to move even at the cost of stepping on the wrong side or that something won’t work. The whole record is calmer than previous ones. I'm happy that it has its own distinctive sound that can be found on all three records and that we're not offering people something they've heard five or ten years ago."
The vinyl contains ten songs, the CD offers two bonus tracks, the song “Happy Birthday” and the English version of the oldest song, “52 Years”. The latter is on the vinyl only in the Spanish version as “52 años”. The production was done by Ondřej Ježek in his studio jáMOR, as usual.
So, Happy Birthday, Nylon Jail!