Lovingly pinched from Pitchfork: If music were only the sum of the adjectives generally used to describe it, Jesu– beautiful, brutal, melodic, metallic, heavy, heavenly– would probably be my favorite band of all time. Since 2003, Justin K. Broadrick has stretched gentle, arching pop tunes over relentless drums and electric guitars. Jesu is the more accessible extension of Broadrick’s Godflesh, grafting that old band’s maw to music both bleak and hazy, warm and hummable. If those ideas seem mutually exclusive, consider Jesu alongside a select cartel of drone, metal, slowcore, and shoegaze bands– My Bloody Valentine, Alcest, Low, Elliott Smith, the Stars of the Lid– who make music that’s pretty but neither slight nor light.

Jesu, however, works for me less than half of the time– generally only when he finds balance between the polar adjectives above. Oftentimes, the beautiful stuff seems listless and flimsy (by and large, 2007′s Conqueror) while the heavy stuff seems aimless and sprawling for sprawl’s sake (the compelling but wandering self-titled debut, from 2004). Heart Ache & Dethroned, which combines two Jesu EPs, is an unlikely panacea: As focused on ideas and emotion as it is on clarity and concision, Heart Ache & Dethroned filters Jesu’s essence into six diverse, dynamic tracks. If you’re new to Broadrick’s expansive aesthetic, this is an excellent inlet; if you’re a veteran, it’s a payoff both perfectly aggressive and magnetic.

This collection gathers the previously unreleased four-track EP, Dethroned, and Heart Ache, Jesu’s long out-of-print debut. The decision to couple the newest Jesu recordings with the oldest might seem odd, but it works both as a showcase of Broadrick’s wide interests and of this particular project’s careful, significant progress.

Continue reading: Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Jesu: Heart Ache & Dethroned.