Sometimes, people send me their music. I'm very grateful for this - after all, free music! - and if I think an email looks particularly promising, I make a point of flagging it to ensure that it doesn't get buried under a bunch of other emails and forgotten about.
Well, those little red flags were really starting to stack up, and so I thought it might be time for another whistle-stop tour through some of the most interesting-looking items that have been emailed to me in recent weeks. The original 'Rattle Through My Inbox' blog is here.
The Hangman's Door by Moses Luster and the Hollywood Lights
(Album, Out Now)
This album wields an odd blend of old-timey blues and heavy synths, and while the latter element is utilised less and less as the tracks tick by, it still gives the whole thing a slightly unusual feel. Moses Luster has a fantastic voice - kind of like an evangelical Guy McKnight - and female backing vocals are employed to good effect on several tracks, putting one in mind of Leonard Cohen classics like Tower of Song and Ain't No Cure for Love.
That being said, most of these songs are too generic - lyrically speaking - to truly merit comparison with Cohen and other obvious inspirations like Nick Cave. The title track, heavy in sound and thick with desperation, is my personal highlight, but even this song lacks the rich characterisation and psychedelic poetry with which this type of music pairs best. If you're going to drop names like Waits and Bukowski in your PR emails then you need to deliver some truly singular songwriting, and while The Hangman's Door is a very cool listen, Swordfishtrombones it ain't.
For fans of: Nick Cave, as mentioned; Mr Luster has Cave's bluesy gothic sound down pat, although his lyrics still have quite a long way to go. None of these songs are exactly Higgs Boson Blues.
