Releasing three albums on Warner and one on Island Records should virtually guarantee an artist long term recognition, but in the time since Jude Cole's most recent record flopped (1995's 'I Don't Know Why I Act This Way'), it's been a case of "Jude Who?" for the singer/songwriter.
Now, after a five-year hiatus and more than a decade since he first hit the charts as a solo artist, Cole returns with the independently released 'Falling Home', a well crafted, rootsy album that should go some way to re-establishing his name and credibility.
The album eventually reveals itself as an enjoyable Mid-West mix of the Wallflowers and Steve Earle, but upon first listen, the album doesn’t appear to be too spectacular. Cole seems to have spent his time out re-evaluating his life and for that reason, 'Falling Home’ has quite an introspective feel to it. Maybe I’d had a bad day, but I wasn’t initially impressed.
The album opens with a snippet of Jude as a pre-pubescent teenager wailing a few bars of ‘My Friend Stan’ to complement a catalogue of photos from Jude’s past in the CD booklet. It all seems a little self-indulgent until a proper appreciation of the music emphasises the significance of this walk down memory lane.
Following this opening comes the magnificent ‘I Won’t Bleed’, a harmonica laced, rocking rant with a modern edge that quickly grows on you at a rate of knots. Then the solid and uplifting ‘Brakin’ Wheels’ enters Jayhawks or Steve Earle territory and shows that five years out hasn’t harmed Cole’s vocal chords a jot.
‘Leave Me Alone’ follows in similar fashion and then comes ‘Falling Home’ - a song of simply epic proportions with some understated but hugely effective lead guitar work not to mention a killer chorus. Cole virtually produced and played every note of the album himself and nowhere is that effort and talent more spectacularly confirmed than on the title track.
Cole is generally at his best when his material is more upbeat, and the powerful ‘Somewhere’ and the ballsy, very modern sounding ‘Inhale’ kick hard in all the right places. The sparse, haunting closing track ‘Peaceful In Mine’ is also starkly effective but the highlight has to be poppy brilliance of ‘Raining On The Moon’, a song almost childlike in it’s perspective, but irresistible in its melody.
Though the album isn’t exactly perfect - plodding songs like the mournful ‘Any Dark Day’, the ineffective ‘More Than A Break-Up Song’and the orchestral ‘You Make It Easy’ prove that Cole isn’t superhuman - the honest and gutsy lyrical content is testament to Cole’s ability to re-evaluate his career and make a worthwhile return to the music scene after a few lean years. Thankfully, I was sensible enough not to review this upon first listen, and am I glad about that, because ‘Falling Home’
is something of a personal and musical triumph for Jude Cole.

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