These are recordings from about 1991, the entire arsenal of a band that would sit somewhere between the bands of that time I got exposed to like Dogs D’Amour, The Quireboys and Hanoi Rocks. Its only rock and roll, but at that time I didn’t like it! I was much more into the heavier stuff. Roll forward to the modern day and admittedly I have an appreciation for such a style and those bands now, but I still find it a struggle.
The Ghost of Lovers were from London, and existed in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Their self-proclaimed influences are the aforementioned Hanoi Rocks, but also Johnny Thunders. But as I listen to this release, after a few spins you get a few more sounds coming at you. The opener ‘Tonight’ is on par with who I’ve previously mentioned, then you get to ‘Iona’ which has a certain Bowie influence in the vocals along with ‘Sweet Sensitive Young Thing’. The former ‘Iona’ has musical references to The Smiths too with its high treble string sound. The Rolling Stones inspired ‘Don’t Be Afraid’ comes at you in a welcoming fashion, but I find the overall quality and delivery a little lack lustre. Granted, it was by all accounts a rushed recording, unfortunately it sounds it. ‘So Lonely’ is quite self-indulgent but comes across weak and ‘The Light of My Sanity’ is a little slack, less precise shall we say.
‘Another Time’ is worth a listen, typically in the blues scale, but you may be struck by an AC/DC melody (‘You Shook Me All Night Long’) which isn’t a bad thing, but it made me try to cross reference everything on this disc, which is not what I should be doing when I am listening to an album, it should speak for itself. The live tracks, of which there are four of them added to the originally recorded material actually sound pretty good. There’s a touch more flair on these.
‘Another Time’ indeed, this release unfortunately sounds rushed and dated and simply hasn’t aged well. There may be a chance that the love of all things old will make this a bit more favourable, but I simply find it confused and too much like many other artists combined. The relatively weak production doesn’t help, even if I transport myself back to the time period it was recorded.
(4/10 Paul Maddison)
Leave a Reply