As Clifford, Jump bassist, Jonathon Gray, and I sit outside having
lunch on the porch at this normally busy restaurant I can't help
mulling over what he has just said. I'm seized by a tinge of
sadness when I consider the prospect of admitting the truth - to
concede that somehow he may be right about negativity being a
part of human nature. Then it dawned on me. However cynical it
may sound that an inherent darkness lurks at the heart of
humanity, in many ways it is true, and what Campbell illustrates
here is that in recognizing it, darkness turns to light. And the
"Light," as it were, is where this band has had to turn in order to
circumvent many hardships in the past few years, because to say
that Jump has survived more than a few egregious fouls
committed against them would hedge on understatement. But, for
those in the music business, it has been a familiar story that plays
itself out routinely.

First, the band's label, Breaking Records, was dropped by its
parent company, Atlantic Records, leaving the band with a newly
recorded album which they would have to buy back in order to have
it released. It nearly bankrupted them. That album was Vertigo
which, via their dogged underground fanbase, went on to sell
pretty well. But more troubles would ensue. On a lark they decided
to withhold a deposit to their business manager. A wise decision
in hindsight because they were nearly robbed of everything they
had ever amassed by this person they had once implicitly trusted
who made off with large sums of other client's money. Shaken,
they had to regroup.

One of the changes to be made was to rename the group, so they
decided to call themselves, quite simply, Jump. They also decided
to clarify their "sound" as a band. The mission was to make a
concerted effort to amass collections of songs on record that had
a more cohesive theme. The result is Between The Dim & The
Dark.

The band convened to head into the studio earlier this year to
record Between. with Atlanta-based producer Rick Beato, who
they say, was extraordinarily instrumental in helping them forge
their new direction. And, while some of the more eclectic elements
of what have made various cameos on previous Jump releases
such as the quasi-Hip Hop songs like, "Body Parts" from their
album Magazine, or "Singer" off of Vertigo, In Between. is
unmistakably Jump.

The title track opens this album with CinemaScopic grandeur, a
sonic screenplay trading in the currency of light and shadow,
creating a character sketch for an abiding love between two people
despite hardship.

"I've never been a real political writer," admits Clifford between
bites of bread pudding. "I've always written within the context of
dialogue between another other person and myself. So, the way I
address the theme of being in the "Light" in that song is within the
context of a relationship."

In short, In Between The Dim & The Dark is a collection of ten
really well crafted pop songs rife with soaring harmonies and an
anthemic sensibility which may parlay into long overdue radio
airplay and propel them into, well, the (spot)light.