Album Review – Absolute Reality by The Holiday Ghosts (2023) (FatCat Records)
If the Holiday Ghosts‘ North Street Air album (May 2021) and the simply glorious Credit Note EP (July 2022) resonated with a glorious sense of coastal carefree, then in comparison this Absolute Reality album explores the possibilities of a more dulcet, nearly dank aesthetic.
At this point I would usually cook up a sentence about an extra sense of maturity being displayed before washing such drivel down with a wholesome drink of ‘as they appear to have grown as musicians’, but that really is not the case here as the brilliant opening triple salvo of Rocket, Favourite Freak, and Again and Again, as well as Fight Fight, all contain their perfectly unique juxtaposition of playful jangle, slacker tendencies, and modern-day surf riffs as much as anything ever has done in their back catalogue.
However, in Absolute Reality release there is more of a muted, modern day post punk vibe that harks back to the mid- to late-80s. Vulture augments the post punk vibe with early 60s The Ventures/Dick Dale type surf rock, whereas B-Track feels like the best track that The Bats never got around to writing, so engulfed is it in its Dunedin Sound dulcet riffs.
Limbo, Lose The Game, and the title track slide the slightest of Talulah Gosh’s jangly indie-pop through The Slits‘ post-punk feminine strength, whereas the highlight of the album reveals the lowest of lo-fi jangly whispers of the Cindy-style acoustic strum of Blue and the obtuse chiming indie folk of the beautiful Big Cold River.
The most different release so far from Falmouth’s finest while simultaneously being so very resolutely Holiday Ghosts…the perfect balance.
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