Albums of the Year # 45 Holiday Ghosts - Absolute Reality

 

'Money's too tight to mention.' You're telling me. Simply Red arrived to great fanfare in Autumn 1985 when I was in my first term at university, and were almost immediately annoying. And when you said Simply Red you meant Mick Hucknall. There were other people in the group. They were a band. A band of highly talented musicians. But rarely has anybody represented everything a band had to say as much as Mick encapsulated Simply Red. He might as well have been a solo artist. And he was exceptionally annoying. I was far more interested in The Velvet Underground. And R.E.M. and The Smiths, and Marvin Gaye, and Creation Records to be honest

I'm sorry to lay such basic prejudices related to my dislike of the man so nakedly on the line. But there was the hat. The hair. The coat. The stick. The boots. The manner. The cover he chose , as their first single. A fantastic, relatively obscure, (except to those who knew), soul classic, the Valentine Brothers Money's too Tight To Mention, and turned it into something ersatz, cheap, and erm annoying. They seemed to embody everything that was going wrong with the Eighties. Yet they went straight on the cover of The NME.

So why mention all this now in a review of Absolute Reality, the, (I need to say immediately, quite wonderful) fourth album from Holiday Ghosts out Brighton, (and Falmouth) Because there are parallels. Money is once more, most certainly too tight too mention, more so than in 1985 probably. Just go out and try to do your weekly shop, pay your mortgage, pay your rent, go to the cinema, go see a band, go on holiday. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. Someone, somewhere is having a laugh.

Which makes bands like Holiday Ghosts even more of a blessing. I've written about them already on here. At length early this week after a superb gig at Newcastle's The Cumberland Arms which made my Friday evening. I almost bought  Absolute Reality that night from their stall, but sadly, money was... I guess you get the picture.

But I'm thoroughly enjoying listening to it now and it's instantly evident that it's by far the best thing they've ever done. They were great before but now I really think people need to sit up and pay attention because they're really something special. They've added a couple of new members over the last couple of years in bassist Morgan and guitarist B.Spanks who both bring something tangible and essential to the table and they're a real band now, like the bands we used to have, notably ones they clearly venerate, like Modern Lovers, The Velvet Underground and Television.

Absolute Reality is a palpable classic right from the off. Like The Velvet Underground's Loaded, it seems to frontload with pre-release singles, Rocket, Favourite Freak and Again and Again standing in for Who Loves The Sun, Sweet Jane and Rock & Roll. But I was so pleased to see this entre was no false dawn. The album maintains its cocksure intensity to the close. I'll be amazed to hear a better record of its type all year.

They aren't just a band with stars in their eyes for New York, CBGBs and Boston in the Sixties and Seventies. It's fascinating to listen to the record and try to glean where they're getting their inspiration from throughout. Spanks definitely adds a lairy cockney edge which reminded me both of Small Faces, and Steve Marriot in particular and the almost criminal sharpness of Stiff Records early singles. Wreckless Eric, Nick Lowe, EC and the Dury's Ian and Baxter.

They know their stuff. There's also a taste of the sea air about them. This is a really bracing album. Fitting as they've traded Falmouth for Brighton. They remind me of early British Rock, The Beatles, Johnny Kids & the Pirates, Joe Meek, Tommy Steele, Joe Brown and Marty Wilde. Talking with Sam last week I was surprised when he picked up on the Marquee Moon I was wearing and said that the guitars of Verlaine and Lloyd were one of the things they were keenest to emulate. You can hear that especially in the records two closing B.Track and Big Cold Truck and they really capture something special here. Television are elsewhere too which I'm always really pleased to hear as a huge fan of that band.

Back to the Money's too Tight thing. These are tough times. You don't need me to tell you that. For bands like Holiday Ghosts, who much like the rest of us, aren't getting the acclaim or financial payback they deserve. That's not stopping them making the most of their lives. I saw them last week and they're clearly having a damned good time and helping those fortunate to catch them live have one too in return for turning out to see them. I haven't gone into the lyrics and themes on here but it was already clear from previous records that they're taking the temperature of the times we're all struggling through. All power to their elbows. Make a point of hearing the record. I love it.