Whilst superficially it might be enough to satisfy adolescent urges it isn’t like the real thing. You heard it here first: Holy Ghost Revival – a fat arsed Glaswegian stripper.
Holy Ghost Revival – Twilight Exit
www.myspace.com/holyghostrevival http://www.1965records.com/
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. Holy Ghost Revival (that last word in the name is indicative of their approach), are a band that seek to draw. Their sound is constantly harking back to a prior age. There are some nods to the proto-punk of Iggy and the Stooges or the theatrical rock of Alice Cooper and Guns N’ Roses. Sadly it is mostly the GNR from the period after Axl Rose completely disappeared up his own rectum that they seem to be aping.
The album embraces a host of ‘classic’ rock stylings, but they remain just that – stylings. Never does it feel anymore weighty than pastiche or parody. There is little of substance, which would be less of a problem if the histrionic vocalist Conor Kiley and band-mates didn’t seem to be taking it all so seriously. Opener ‘The Gospel According to Judas’ briefly recalls the Sparks, but sadly it recalls the Sparks being covered by Justin Hawkins. It is a telling comparison, for whilst their musical palette is rather wider than that of the similarly backward looking Darkness, the results are as unconvincingly gauche.
The press release claims that the album has ‘the history and mystery of films like The Wicker Man’. In that film there is a famous scene where Britt Ekland dances naked; pounding on the wall and disturbing the sleep of Edward Woodward, who is in the adjacent room. This celebrated scene has been credited with causing the first stirrings of sexual awakening in men of a certain age. (Me – Ed) Except that it isn’t Britt’s body that we see but that of a stripper from Glasgow (of whom Ekland was to later say that she had an ugly, fat bottom). This album is like that. Whilst superficially it might be enough to satisfy adolescent urges it isn’t like the real thing. You heard it here first: Holy Ghost Revival – a fat arsed Glaswegian stripper.
Words: Rover