When you’re unsure whether the music you’re listening is a parody or rather serious, it’s not the finest basis to listen to an album. Having heard HOLY GHOST REVIVAL’s ‘Embrace the Hate’ single recently, I was intrigued by the glam-rock approach they adopted. It’s a lively song with a discernable chorus, and in spite of the over-riding cheesiness, there were a lot of ideas on it, and some pretty skilled noodling that makes it hard to write them off instantly. Debut album ‘Twilight Exit’ is here now to satiate my curiosity.
Their sound is one of many influences; imagine Gaz Coombes from Supergrass glamming it up Bowie-style and adopting a Noddy Holder wail. Having no press release or band photo to go on, the sound is very much big hair and tight trousers (a quick look at their Myspace, however, suggests something altogether more conventional). That’s the best way to describe this collection of tunes, and on paper (or on screen, as it were) it sounds like a pretty diabolical proposition. But it’s not all completely terrible.
Not that you would know that from album opener ‘The Gospel According To Judas,’ which is a little reminiscent of The Darkness. It’s not a flattering comparison, but it does sound like a flamboyant piss-take of the camper side of classic rock. I guess that’s what the whole album is really, and it’s easily separated into what works and what doesn’t.
‘Wolfking Of LA’ is an example of when it does work. It’s full on glam-garage rock, and you can imagine the cheap pyrotechnics and the leaping into the crowd. They genuinely sound like the sort of band your Mum loved back when she went to gigs. ‘Wetbrain Bandana’ sounds a little more modern; it’s their most Supergrass moment and it’s also the album highlight, building up to an electro-aneurysm of a conclusion. It’s a song that suggests they could do alright in the future if they shake of the novelty seventies sound.
They have a hell of a lot of ideas coursing through every song, and they evoke real atmosphere in many places on the album. ‘Empire Skies’ is a melodramatic, piano-led, backed with big, occasional riffs that is rather eerie. Before the song has played out, it’s all picked up and turn into some big finale number, full of Queen grandiosity and Boomtown Rats delivery. It’s musical theatre, in many ways, and so your enjoyment depends on your views on amateur dramatics. There’s no question that these songs are real compositions – at time the music is very intricate, and leaps through more phases than six playbacks of ‘Paranoid Android.’ As a band, they play fantastically, with particular note to the strong work on the keyboard/piano/organ, that is consistently brilliant throughout.
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There are lots of ambitious concepts floating around Holy Ghost Revival, but there is something disconcerting that their sound never really comes across as their own. They pull lots of ideas together and come out sounding just like a band of yesteryear – like The Boomtown Rats on the comparatively dull ‘Burn Down Your House,’ although special mention should be made for The Exorcist theme style interlude that follows it – completely unexpected and rather enjoyable.
It sounds like HGR are a band who like to have fun with their music. They have a lot of potential strings to their bow, and with time they may turn into something quite special. The talent is clearly in abundance. Thing is, they could do that, but also be taken seriously if they worked on developing their sound instead of slipping heavily into pastiche on too many occasions.
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