Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
What makes the image of the California Girl so iconic, one of sun, warm seas, a dream sold to the idealistic and the dreamers never short of cash; the girl was a concoction of post war affluence and political will delivered by propaganda and desire, and one that persists in the minds of the everyday and the visionaries ready to make fantasies come true.
For the Ghosts Of Sunset, the California Girl represents a dichotomy of states of awareness, one caught in the beauty of dream to which we aspire, and that in which we fear as the band takes the listener on the expressway calling at all the classic dramas and tragedies that come along, heartbreak, addiction, and the spectres of love and identity, as they provide a hearty pop rock cinematic style soundtrack to what is the beauty of the open road.
Melody is the image, the phrasing of how the returning character of the titular character at the heart of this expression of captivating sound by John Merchant and Todd Long is received, and it is a melody that entails the sublime depth to which the rich concept is marked.
It is an album of nostalgic sound but also deep abiding modern truth, that in a way we are all that woman that the pair sing of with elegance and fire-driven, one misplaced in her emotions and being pushed and pulled between the heartfelt and the anchoring of despair and enrichment, and as tracks such as Anywhere But Here, Fade, Get Gone, It Gets A Little Worse, and Play The Fool grip the listener as though they have been given free range to soak in the atmosphere of late night stops and empty traffic miles, the listener will find that Ghosts Of Sunset have created something dynamically charged and scintillatingly cool.
Edifyingly uncomplicated, insistent on its prowess, California Girl is a forceful and pleasurable beat that never stops giving.
Ghosts Of Sunset release California Girl on Golden Robot Records on August 29th.
Ian D. Hall