The chorus to the title track here rather lends itself to reverie. “This is the sound of remembering” sings Ryan Hamilton on the first record from his Harlequin Ghosts. So, forgive the trip down memory lane, but reason number 2134 why music was better when I was a kid, is this.
On a Wednesday, Kerrang would come out and me and my mate, we’d pour over the reviews. We’d pick out stuff that we’d save our money for based on what was said and who said it (if it was Morat, Dave Ling, Ray Zell, Malcolm Dome, Mick Wall, or Steve Beebee, we were especially keen).
One day, there was a review of a single called “Golden Skin” by Silver Sun that caught my eye. The following Saturday, I was in Tempest Records in Birmingham, buying the two versions of it.
And that, ladies and gents, is how I came to love power pop.
Now, I have no idea whether over in Texas, Ryan Hamilton, did something similar (I am fairly sure that Harlequin Ghost’s bass player Rob Lane– who judging by his Twitter is a similar age to me – might have) but there’s a moment in “Bottoms Up (Here’s To Goodbye)” where, at the risk of turning into my dad, I went: “blimey that takes me back….”.
The band have been playing the song for a while. It continued their rise – and that is to be applauded given that he’s basically done this himself – but more than that, it’s just a fabulous three minutes, mid-90s style, slice of rock n roll, and if you loved bands like Honeycrack, The Senseless Things and the aforementioned Silver Sun, then you need to step right on.
Even better, it isn’t even the best thing here. That is the lead track here, “Mamacita” which borrows the intro to The Wildhearts “I Wanna Go Where The People Go”. Oh, and it was co-written with Little Steven.
Yep, that one.
Now, we all know he’s a Disciple of Cool, but the boy Van Zandt also owns Wicked Cool Records, the label this comes out on. Apparently he decided this didn’t have a chorus, so he added one. A low-slung groover of rare class now is a knockout.
“Feels Like Falling In Love” has echoes of The Hold Steady, while “Get Down” has echoes of just about every cool rock n roll song ever. This is what I imagine 1950s America was like. It probably wasn’t. Chuck Berry, well, his spirit is alive and well. “Any other night, you’d be out of my league,” goes the line, and this one is for the dreamers.
“Far Gone” brings things back to normality. “You were gonna change the world, she was gonna be your girl”, maybe this is the morning after the one before, maybe its not, but either way it is a blue collar piece of songwriting that Tom Petty’s chug is all over.
“All Fall Down” is a real change of pace, but one which shows just how good a craftsman Hamilton has become. “Let You Go” is the sort of thing he has been doing since going solo, and that is wrapping sad lyrics over a sugar sweet tune. “I loved you but I let you go,” he offers here, “because I would rather be alone…..” This is the break up anthem for when you want to pretend its her fault and you don’t care.
The piano hook to “So Gone” takes this into E-St Band territory, while the slide drenched “Girl Vs. Monster” wanders into the country roads that Hamilton does every so often, but still, the harmonies here are gorgeous.
“Same Page” though, comes from a different place. One, maybe, of fists in the air defiance, and perhaps, given the outright fragility of “Won’t Stop Now” he is reminding himself too? Certainly, he’s never hid his battles with mental illness from anyone, and there is a deep-rooted confusion here.
I’ve been lucky enough to follow Ryan Hamilton’s recent career pretty closely. The collection of music he’s made in the last five years, I would argue, is pretty much unrivalled by anyone. There is a warmth about his gigs, there is a skill in his songwriting, and now, with Harlequin Ghosts, he’s got a proper rock n roll band too. He has pretty much become the King of the three minute pop rock song, and “This is The Sound” is the sound of a statement.
Rating 9.5/10
