Right from the off this dark brooding post-punk rattles a few cakes containing some placebo and a dash of Bauhouse and your sort of in the same safe place. The opener is dark and sparse and doesn’t really give much away except set the tone maybe because the first video off the album was for ‘Sleepwalker’ which sounds like someone was listening to Morrissey warbling over some Banshee track but with an old school feel coming off the end product it does build but it does so oh so gradually before reaching the end anyway.
There is a sad dreamlike quality to proceedings and it sounds like things are on the brink of getting loud but never do its sort of frustrating at times when you can hear it about to break and then it drops back like on ‘Only Nightmares’ its like when a darts player can’t quite let go of his arrow well Crooked Ghost are a little bit like that here.
It’s virtually like that for every song with the odd exception. Take ‘Witch Heart’ its a bit more lively but the tune isn’t quite there the other thing is songs like ‘Black Cat’ is almost six minutes long and Suede it isn’t.
The same can also be said for the title track which clocks in at over six minutes it just seems like everything could have been said and done in half the time it actually took which is a shame because there are parts of this I really like.
It might appeal to fans of the Sisters of mercy or Craig Adams solo project but it’s too pedestrian for me – sorry.
Author: Dom Daley
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