I have just been listening to Roky Erickson, Abba, Army Of Lovers and Depeche Mode. Why on earth I would be doing that is a good question even if I do own several albums by one of the artists on that list. It’s down to that pesky Ghost, that recent masked phenomena who have taken the world by storm and have come pretty close to crossing through the portal from the metal world into the mainstream. Their new EP contains covers by the aforementioned bands and could actually have them doing just that. I was having a quick compare and contrast to see how their versions lived up to the original and am thinking about getting myself locked up for my own safety as I have just heard an Abba song that I don’t mind and normally I hate Abba nearly as much as Christmas music! That Ghost must have put a spook on me!
Before we quite get to that though, good old Roky’s ‘If You Have Ghost’ is a song that was destined to be done by them and no doubt it could well have sparked off this whole EP (thank Christ they didn’t do Ghost Town, or Ghostbusters although There’s A Ghost In My House could have been good; the possibilities are endless). Roky E is a name that has been bandied about a lot lately as being a cult figure in rock circles and the Evil Ones twanging harmonies have been given a lilting string intro before melodiously taking you all the way to nirvana on the 13th floor elevator. Puns aside it’s as catchy a song as anything off the band’s superior debut album and after one listen it’s going to be lodged for days. Compare the original singer’s nasal sounding Americana accent to Papa E’s and with the obvious leap in recording qualities and you have a much more modern sounding song. I seriously wonder if this could just touch the charts. Having Abba on hand won’t do it any harm either, even if ‘I’m A Marionette’ does have Ghost’s Satanic sounding schtick leading it in and there is no Mrs Emeritus to replace the tones of Agnetha and that other chick. It loses that sort of ‘musical dance of performing arts’ sound from the original and plays it straight in a head-nodding fashion. After listening back to both versions again I take what I said about the original back, it is actually a bit on the annoying side but nowhere near as much as their bigger hits.
Now I do remember ‘Crucified’ by Army Of Lovers and the Euro hit with the whacky video is not really a welcome memory as it goes about mixing disco with Falco, Laibach and well Abba! It’s another canny choice for the Ghouls and here it thankfully lacks a lot of the overblown pomposity of the original although still retains the dramatic and theatrical main vocal parts giving them a devilish feel. The chorus wafts fragrantly through with backing vocals helping lodge it in the heads of a completely unsuspecting generation. Now my dalliance with Depeche Mode pretty much tailed off after ‘Black Celebration’ so 1990 song ‘Waiting For The Night’ is no personal Jesus to me. Still Ghost have that knack of making the song sound different but also making it sound very much like Depeche Mode at times. It’s not like we are suddenly going to discover Dave Gahan behind the mask but again this is another band whose style Ghost seem to manage to pull off with ease. They add a significant dose of gravity to what is quite an understated slow burning song in the process too.
Wrapping up this selection of covers for good measure is a live version of ‘Secular Haze’ (and why not) and all round you have a selection of songs that are going to annoy the hell out of you or have you singing along remembering how good/bad the originals were, or perhaps turning you on/off to some sounds of yesteryear. As for me, I quite enjoyed the trip back!
(7/10 Pete Woods)
25/11/2013 at 5:32 pm
My copy arrived via Amazon the other day. More of an enjoyable curio then solid addition to their body of work in my opinion. I know some have slated album 2/Papa Emeritus 2, but I’m still a sucker for a well played Hammond Organ sound.