‘Mrs. Hippy’ is the second CD, after ‘Small Talk Space Message’ from 2004, by Les Generals Jack. The band was formed in 1999 on a vessel called ‘Jack’ in the marina of Louvain (buoyant city not so far from Belgian capital Brussels) The trio comprises Marc Bodart (guitar, vocals), Bart Ieven (‘octave’guitar) and Toon Derison (drums; leader of the band, member of a lot of well known bands) We didn’t know them but it is said that they began as a cover bluesband. Therefore this CD has ‘Everyone his blues’ as its device. ‘Mrs. Hippy’…you get the idea? If not, look at the paddle steamer on the cover! The name of the band is probably also a pun as in Elsene/Ixelles (Brussels) there’s a Boulevard Général Jacques and as Brussels really is a source of inspiration for this record. But there’s very little blues on this rather optimistically world widely distributed CD, except for the well sung ‘’I’d Like To Know’, the Canned Heat boogie style of ‘Human Condition’, with its muddled guitar playing, the slow blues of ‘Baby Got Something’ and maybe the mild boogie of ‘Let Me In’. Instead, what you get to hear is good time rock ’n roll that’s going all kinds of directions, up to rockabilly (sloppy ‘High Speed Rooster’) and a rather sluggish closing anthem (‘Worse’) An indomitable enthusiasm and strokes of verbal and musical humour have to make up for what’s missing in (solid) ideas or doesn’t come out as desired. Factor of unity is the sound of the band, but although we crave a carefully considered variety on one single record, it sometimes divides more than it brings together, like here. It’s a comparable problem as in Cookin’ With Cohen by David Bennett Cohen, recently reviewed on these pages. Mind you, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with enthusiastic home crafting and we even suppose this band is really cooking on stage, like in a head over heels give it all take no prisoners Pogues concert. But what’s on a CD, stays there for all times, and if you’re not critical enough on what you’ve done, then the end result is pretty much consequence of coincidence. In the worst case this leads to little monsters like ‘No Use To Cry’ (oh boy, how did this ever get on the CD?!) At best you get infectious ‘New Orleans goes soukous’ music in the tribute to ‘Matonge Square’, center of the lively Congolese neighbourhood of Brussels (singing: Freddy Masamba) We are severe but we wouldn’t make the effort if we thought it wasn’t worthed. A good sound ‘kill your darlings’ mentality and we could expect a lot from Les Generals Jack.