Holy Ghost Revival - 'Twilight Exit' (1965) Released 01/09/08

It’s hard to know what to make of Holy Ghost Revival, whether to admirably appreciate or comically rub your eyes in disbelief at a band who revel in blurring the distinction between intelligent parody and niche determination. Either way, one thing is for certain, despite the glam rock falsetto similarities that immediately emerge through the album opener ‘The Gospel According To Judas’ Justin Hawkins doesn’t front the Seattle five-piece even if they do appear to be squatting in his former ivory tower perfecting their generically predictable predictability.

Running on half a tank of borrowed ideas, nostalgic.phpirations and fuelled by an excess of drawn out piano, guitar and more unnaturally high-pitched vocals, not only do ‘Green Raised Vein’ and ‘Wolfking Of L.A.’ lack structure but are consistently deficient of that all important beginning and end; there’s simply too much middle and filler, the audible equivalent of a flamboyant sandwich without the bread. With the vaudeville theatrics soon wearing thin, ‘Old Hollywood Is Over’ signals the arrival of the ballad, with ‘Empire Skies’, ‘Burn Down Your House’ and ‘RM. 612’ following suit and raising a solemn lovelorn standard against a cloud stained sky. It’s a welcome change of direction, but like the rest of the album lacks conviction preferring to hover precariously over a self-imposed safety net than embrace the authenticity their style demands.

Although Holy Ghost Revival are a band that take themselves extremely seriously ‘Twilight Exit’ is an album of triviality lost among a dearth of style-starved glitter and unnecessary accompanying instrumentation summed up by the epic album showstopper ‘Rationed Sacrifice’. While not feeling the need to be bound by genre, peer or record label expectations is commendable, the music just doesn’t reflect the vision and when throwaway lyrics like “She’s young, dumb and full of cum” compete against the albums standout track ‘Embrace The Hate’ for the title of being one of the albums limited highlights, you know you’re dealing with musical marmite of the highest order.