J. Geils Band, The
Nightmares ...And Other Tales From The Vinyl Jungle

Listening notes

The J. Geils Band's *Nightmares ...And Other Tales From The Vinyl Jungle* was released on Atlantic Records (catalog number SD 18107) as a standard vinyl LP. The record falls across the genres of blues rock, pop rock, and rock, a range that maps reasonably well onto the band's established identity as a group working the intersection of American roots music and harder-edged rock.

The nine-track program is divided across two sides. Side A opens with "Detroit Breakdown," the longest track on the record at six minutes even, and moves through "Givin' It All Up," "Must Of Got Lost," and "Look Me In The Eye" before closing on the title track, "Nightmares," a notably brief one minute and fourteen seconds. That sequencing places the album's shortest piece at the end of the first side, an unusual structural choice that gives Side A an asymmetrical feel by runtime alone.

Side B carries the heavier portion of the album's total playing time. "Stoop Down #39" leads at six minutes and fifty seconds, making it the longest individual track on the record. It is followed by "I'll Be Coming Home," "Funky Judge," and the Side B closer "Gettin' Out" at five minutes and forty-six seconds. The back half of the record thus opens and closes with extended tracks, with shorter material occupying the middle positions.

Taken purely by the numbers, the full program runs to just over forty-two minutes across nine tracks, with an average track length of roughly four and a half minutes. The title's explicit nod to vinyl — *Tales From The Vinyl Jungle* — is worth noting as a self-aware gesture toward the format on which this release exists.

*This is an unreviewed draft. All claims should be verified against primary sources before publication.*