REVIEW: MIDNIGHT GHOST TRAIN – CYPRESS AVE (2017)

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Gonna rock down to….a different avenue 

As Chuck Berry once said: you never can tell. But then, in the case of The Midnight Ghost Train you do have to expect the unexpected.

When we reviewed 2015’s major label debut “Cold Was The Ground” we said this: “A record in the best traditions of a grower, it might take you a couple of listens to get into  [the album], but every music fan knows that it’s the records that take you by surprise initially that remain with you forever. Stick with it and it’s a journey that keeps on giving. A little dark, even a touch scary, and lord, are there some twists and turns, but Midnight Ghost Train are moving at full steam ahead.

That was then, but this is now and now most definitely sees  even that thinnest of rule books ripped up and all the fragments thrown out of the window.

In fairness, it does start with something approaching the dark, slightly unsettling blues that they did last time, and there’s a feeling that “Tonight” is going to cut loose at any time, although it rather lurks like some Peeping Tom in the shadows.

This is followed up with a kind of desert rock feel on “Red Eyed Junkie Queen” which rather graphically tells the tale of a young woman who, let’s say has made some bad life choices: “it’s the size of your chest, not the price of your dress that keeps them coming on back” sings Steve Moss. Actually, he doesn’t sing. He almost talks the lyrics in a growl – but it all adds to the unique brew that TMGT manage.

The first real clue that “Cypress Ave” is not a road that many bands would live on, comes on “Glenn’s Promise”, which is sort of like what it would be like if Nick Cave fronted Clutch, while “Bury Me Deep” with its sub Killing Joke type angular bass, is one of the heaviest things they’ve done.

It is just like them, though to follow this up with the brooding “The Watchers Nest” – best thought of as a lullaby to bring on nightmares – and then the marching beat of “Break My Love” takes off into another area altogether.

The band reckons – according to their Facebook page anyway – to be influenced by “soul”. To that end “Lemon Trees” dabbles with being funky. “The Boogie Down” doesn’t bother dabbling, it jumps straight in, complete with a horn section and rapper Sonny Cheeba supplying a laid-back jam, it really is nothing like anything you expected, even from a band who think this far out of the box.

After that, really, all bets are off as to what comes next. “Black Wave” is ambient blues, “The Echo” finds something nasty in the swamps, and the stripped back “I Can’t Let You Go” might be a ballad of sorts, but its not one you’re going to hear as a first dance at many weddings – unless you are a regular at the Adams Family’s do’s.

It is, though, fitting that such a record ends in this way. There aren’t many albums this ambitious. And whilst it would be wrong to say it all worked perfectly, you have to give The Midnight Ghost Train immense credit for having balls this big.

There are some dark alleys on “Cypress Ave” and whilst you travel them at your peril, you might enjoy what you find down there.

Rating 7.5/10

 

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