Review

For Gene Loves Jezebel's Jay and Michael Aston, 1999 proved to be the year of the feud. Working very much apart from one other, both were touting their own Gene Loves Jezebel albums that year, Jay with his VII LP and Michael with his own Love Lies Bleeding. However, although Love Lies Bleeding appears under the Gene Loves Jezebel imprint, it owes far more, obviously, to Michael's own folk-rock aspirations than to the wonderfully big-haired and beribboned neo-goth that the band usually plied, and anyone looking for the anthemic "Desire"-era Jezzies -- beware. That said, Love Lies Bleeding is a remarkable foray into melody and style -- epitomized by the haunting title track as well as by the cagily titled "Necromancing the Cunning Linguist," "The Lion in Your Eyes," and the bitter bite of "Loving You is the Best Revenge." Working with former Human Drama mainstay Michael Ciravolo, whose guitars add an interesting touch, Michael Aston revamped his vision of Gene Loves Jezebel and, lying under that perhaps more commercial banner, he delivered what essentially amounts to a nifty solo album.