Jack's Maze formed in Hightstown, New Jersey back in 1989, as Laughing Jack, and cut their teeth on the New York tri-state rock scene through the early 90s. Their new single is The Edge, out since 20 October.
The band split up at some point after recording a debut album in 1993, Life In The Maze, which went unreleased for the best part of three decades until they reunited in 2021 and finally put it out in 2024. The Edge is the second taste of album number two, Once In A Blue Moon, due via RPM Entertainment in January 2027, following lead single Let It Go in September.
Singer Frank Cinquegrana wrote The Edge after the death of guitarist Bill Snyder. "I wrote the music and lyrics for 'The Edge' a couple of years back after Jack's Maze guitarist Bill Snyder suddenly passed away," he says. "So, it's a call to him. Asking him if he hears us carrying on for him. And regrets I had, unable to reach out or do something to catch him before he fell off the edge!" Writing it also brought back the memory of the band's first lead guitarist, Jimmy Gentilin, who took his own life years earlier.
Losing two bandmates and putting both their names in one song, rather than talking around it, is the kind of honesty that earns a spot on here. Thirty seven years on from being teenagers in Hightstown, this is a band still writing about what's actually happened to them rather than filling space, and that's the band I want to back.
The Big Takeover says Let It Go has "the older foundations… still audible" without ever feeling "burdened by it", and Nyrdcast picked out Cinquegrana's vocal for "the emotional directness of Van Morrison".
The Edge was recorded at Robin Ross's Baa Baa Leaf Studio in Milford, Pennsylvania, with mastering engineer Jonathan Duckett, who has worked with Philip Glass, Kenny G and David Sanborn. For fans of Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, Rush and King Crimson, it's out now on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Bandcamp, alongside Life In The Maze.