silktempest's Full Review: Haunted Horse: Songs Of Love, Defiance, And Delusi...
I like side projects. Especially when I don't know the original thing.
NEON HORSE seems a side project. Whose? Nobody knows for sure the bandmembers' names. They seem to arise from Christian Indie bands or something of the sort. I bet...Listen to the music. Forget about this "who may this be" thing - which for me is just a crass marketing stunt.
Haunted Horse - Songs of Love, Defiance and Delusion is their sophomore record. Like SMASHING PUMPKINS', you think of such a name? Maybe. They seem to share with Bily Corgan a love for BLACK SABBATH and Indie hermeticism.
On the one hand, the singer, whoever it may be, is not as nasally voices as the Grunge forefather - it reminds you of Corgan's idol, OZZY OSBOURNE, what I think is pretty cool.
On the other hand, the singer's companions don't play slow and steady as SABBATH would require. Be them who they want to be, they are Indie enthusiasts, or enthusiastic Indie-ans. They favor oblique melodies, sputtering guitar lines and old keyboards which they believe are amusing and fashionable, not disposable relics from mercenary times. Their sonic mix is based on overlap rather than studied distance - which confers immediacy, but not much pop appeal, to their retro-contemporary stints. Their novelty mash-ups are far from THE STROKES or even THE TING TINGS.
What Daddy Gets Home packs the claustrophobic atmosphere of early INXS singles - gloomy New Wave with nervy guitar, retro synths, and distorted vocals. Just keep walking - until the song is over and you think QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE has a contender when Josh Homme is on his way to bathroom.
What about the 1980s? Strange Town sounds as if THE KILLERS met DANDY WARHOLS on their way to a LOVE AND ROCKETS show. In what comes to synths, drums and bass, production places them squarely back in 1985. The composition is oddly contemporary, as MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE's affected new-retro romanticism. Vocals and guitars are somewhere in between. Add a RAMMSTEIN brief chorus and no solos - and Brendon Flowers will call his older brother...
Yer Busy Little Beehive is something that OINGO BOINGO and THE HARD-FI could have spawned together before a juke joint. Spiky Glam meets shaky synths - affected ways...For someone that didn't miss the 1980s. People of my age will believe there is something appealing in this clash of sonorities that have for most of the times vanished without a decent trace...Past SUEDE. By today's standards it may sound intriguing. Lyrics seem a mocking of Christian bands. If they (whoever they may be) are indeed a Christian band, I believe it is hard being Indie and Christian at the same time, eccentric pranksters and firm believers all the way down to...A neo-retro item like this. Anyway, I liked the debauched oaaahs. This is the closer they may get to Coachella. A mash-up that unveils an actual song, or something close to the edge of.
A DEF LEPPARD B-side with DAVID BYRNE onboard is what we get in Follow the Man - silly arty rock. Straightforward throbbing guitars and a Gonzo singer - hey, the chorus is decent, infectious in a KNACKy way of going about the things. Better than anything in the latest FRANZ FERDINAND album - which it eerily mirrors. An affected bridge reminds you this is an Indie band. Anyway I lost it completely down that miserably charming chorus, which gets better and looser with each play. Lose your mind if you wish. 2009's 3-minute-stupid-song of choice.
An Electro Glam vamp (1983 style) is the next offering, Some Folks. A DURAN DURAN B-Side in a HOT HOT HEAT compilation? Maybe. The sparse throbbing instruments and GARY NUMAN keyboards make for a novelty fusion. I didn't think OZZY sounded like Simon LeBon - but here we have the thing in all its disposable allure. Some folks tell me the end is near. Some folks tell me there is nothing to fear. Yes, this is so 1980s. I wonder where it's been all those years.
Sounding more and more like a disturbed, yet convincing twin of THE KILLERS' third record, NEON HORSE offers another wicked minor 1980s gem - ‘Haven't Sinned in Years? Not exactly. Here they sound closer to 1994 PRIMAL SCREAM - aping THE ROLLING STONES and BOWIE, with a vacillating singer. Fat guitars and the unease of reality/fantasy mixes will entertain you but SUEDE can rest unafraid, these are just novelty provocateurs. It lacks grit and grind. They really haven't.
Cell-O-Phone is better. It bears an idiotic title, a QUEEN-like faux Electronic stomp sure to give you a lot of laughs. And better yet, it sounds like a deranged take on MGMT's digital hippie babble. Like a slow-motion ghost train it is harmless but funny - and the band, whoever they may be, play professionally and keep the mid-pace flow astoundingly. I remember HAPPY MONDAYS - manic hoarse, electronics sprinkled over chaotic outbursts of echoing guitars. All the rich got mobile phones - bones!
Chain Gang, Bang Bang (title of the year) is a humorous British faux-psychedelic idiocy. Like THE KOOKS impersonating ARCTIC MONKEYS to a FRATELLIS tune. OASIS is over. We will need things like this in the near future. For a while I thought of FISHBONE, if they were born in Manchester. What an idiotic chorus. What a funny ditty. What a cheesy brass section. THE HIVES, wait and see...Everybody sing along! Impossible to take seriously vocals.
Comin' Up Theventh is a more subtle affair - a noir movie soundtrack by GORILLAZ, cartoonish vocals, faux-World Music background, ruthless stomp and retro sound effects. Unusually, this kind of sound grows older without showing signs, as technology preserves what yesterday was astonishing and today, merely referential. Still, better than THE KLAXONS, which mine the same sonorities with even diminished care. The ebb and flowing tormented melodies make some sense in the set.
Terrific coda for an anonymous band's sophomore recording based on cheap past sonorities, I Don't Need Anything is a tight-fisted 1980s...Hard Rock. Ominous guitar figures coalesce into bubblegum choruses straight from Los Angeles. Ludicrous, ironic Indie vocalizes become the stuff of legend with vocoders. They know it, that's why they use them so prominently. Like a MAROON 5 from the pits of Hair Metal, to the pace of AC/DC wastes, they know we don't need anything...Else these days. See ya.
File under: nostalgic rollercoaster
Tracklist:
* * * 1/2 When Daddy Gets Home * * * * Strange Town * * * * Yer Busy Little Beehive * * * * 1/2 Follow the Man * * * * Some Folks * * * 1/2 ‘Haven't Sinned in Years * * * * Cell-O-Phone * * * * Chain Gang, Bang Bang * * * 1/2 Comin' Up Theventh * * * 1/2 I Don't Need Anything
Formed from the remnants of a dozen-plus talented L.A. bands, Neon Horse returns with their sophomore release, blending driving classic rock sounds wi...More at Christianbook.com
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.