UNDEFINABLE (2025)
Almost ready for release in 2025, the latest album from Mungo Jerry is Undefinable. Mick O’Hanlon, just like he did for the previous CD, Somelight, has already reviewed each track for us at the website and also for the forthcoming book reviewing each and every Mungo Jerry track to date.
Tracks: Road Trip/500 Miles/Born To Sing The Blues/Made With Love/There’s Always Time For Coffee/Stand Up/We Were Born/I Walk Alone/That Is Why (I’m So In Love With You)/Keep On Rockin’.
MICK O’HANLON’s REVIEW OF ‘UNDEFINABLE’
Right, let’s be clear about this:
“Undefinable”, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, means “something that cannot be defined by anyone” whereas “Indefinable” refers to anything that cannot be precisely defined or put into words.
Have we all got that then? I suppose it shows the folly of trying to over-define something.
When Ray Dorset’s Mungo Jerry exploded onto the scene during the summer of 1970, the music press hammered out reviews and critiques to categorise the sound and the esprit of the newcomers. The music press took themselves very seriously back then. Journalists crusaded passionately to advise discerning music fans whether a new act was a singles band or an album band. After all, one very ‘Important’(what?) supergroup had told NME that the reason they never released singles was because they didn’t want their music being played by the wrong sort of people.
Try as they might, the music press could never pigeon-hole Ray Dorset. Some of them underestimated Mungo Jerry from the beginning, despite nearly sixty subsequent years of successful touring, recording and releasing hit singles and at least 25 albums. Maybe they just tried too hard to define Mungo Jerry.
Categorising the breadth and depth of Ray’s music can be like trying to herd cats. Mungo Jerry recordings embrace every genre and style from blues, bluegrass and the jugband era of Americana, through the Rock’n’roll and Rockabilly beloved of his teen years to psychedelia, discotheque and well beyond. His new Undefinable album provides a rich slice of delights for Mungo fans to savour. Ray has said that most listeners are not prejudiced by ephemeral genres or styles. He says that the listener simply likes or dislikes a song, without any other agenda.
His judgement is honed by six decades of live performances before millions, all around the world. His innate communion with an audience and his understanding of what they want at any time is the life force behind any Mungo Jerry gig. In this respect, Undefinable is a triumph. The ten tracks encompass a mix of Mungo magic with laid back road trip standards and some gems that would have been Top Ten hits when vinyl was king. Ah, those days of keeping ten-bob aside to buy the latest Mungo Jerry single. Well, Undefinable has more than a few quid’s worth of hits to keep any listener happy.
Road Trip opens this offering, and it provides the musical backdrop to the whole album. Imagine you are with a group of hippies in a beat-up old VW van, trundling along Route 66 and you’ll get the picture. Ray’s laid-back drawl evokes Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters era, without the need for other stimulants: “We won’t need no acid test”.
500 Miles is another in the style of classic American road blues. It has some witty MJ lyrics that recall My Friend from the first MJ album.
We’re back in that VW van on the road trip with Born To Sing The Blues. Touches of Solomon Burke-like skat singing as Ray explores some radical vocal styles.
Made with Love is harmonious, catchy and bouncy. A definite single from this album. The organ and guitar provide a vibe where Boot Power’s, My Girl and Me might meet Say Goodnight from MJ’s Greatest hits (1973).
Stand Up brings us back to the rolling, road trip theme. It’s a hippy protest song about being true to your beliefs. Strong, echoey vocals driven by sleek sax and crisp percussion reinforce this stomper.
We Were Born is an anthem that reminds us of Follow Me Down, from Electronically Tested (1971). It also conjures up memories of Play for you my Drum, a MJ Euro hit from the 1980s.
I Walk Alone is an atmospheric nightcrawler, reminiscent of Ray’s Covid-era albums. It’s one of his story songs, a little like Gone to Malayia, from the Polydor years.
Keep On Rockin’ wraps up the album and reminds you it’s time to play it again. KOR is a nod to Ray’s encore sign-off for half a century. His driving vocals provide the engine behind this song, this album and every Mungo Jerry release since 1970.
There has been some talk that this may be Ray’s last album, bringing down the curtain on an astonishing career. I prefer to wait and see. While any musical colossus could proudly hang up the guitar and point contentedly to a back catalogue of global hits, I sense that Ray Dorset’s personal muse will not let him rest on his laurels for very long. I doubt that the entity that is Mungo Jerry will let him.
Mick O’Hanlon.