It has been a long way from the grinding experimental and industrial metal of Godflesh and Napalm Death for Jesu frontman Justin Broadrick. After the demise of Godflesh, Broadrick's new project more or less started where he had left off, with the metal influence clearly visible, but two albums and a handful of EPs later, it's difficult to spot any metal influence at all. "Why Are We Not Perfect?" isn't about riffs or distortion, it's about layered atmospherics and ambient soundscapes.

The first track, Farewell gets things off to a typical enough start, with a flanged looping effect and a drum machine serving as an intro before the fuzzy, ethereal guitar wash sweeps through the song. It's pretty, and Broadrick's vocals suit this sort of music perfectly. It's more The Album Leaf or Ride than it is any of the work that he's done before (and that includes previous Jesu releases), but that doesn't mean it's a bad song.

Sadly, the rest of the EP isn't quite as convincing. Blind and Faithless is a short and insignificant instrumental piece, and the title track is disappointing, basically being a rerun of Farewell but without the same immediacy or beauty to it. Of even less note are the two 'alternative' versions of the songs that bring up the rear, while interesting enough on their own, they're not interesting enough to justify soaking up 40% of the actual runtime of the EP. These two would have been far better saved up for an odds-and-ends compilation or something of the nature, especially seeing as they're not all that different from the originals anyway.

While it still proves that there are plenty of ideas rattling around in Broadrick's head, "Why Are We Not Perfect?" is by far the least effective and essential release by Jesu so far. I don't know whether the fact that the last two tracks are essentially repeats of tracks one and three indicate writer's block, a difficulty adapting to the genre, or a misplaced belief that it's 'artistic', but it's something that I hope doesn't become a habit.