American country rock goes British
'Dust Ghosts' is an interesting prospect: alternative American country with a British tinge and the English sounding vocals makes a difference. More interesting still, The Wireless Stores have an ex-Send More Paramedics person but sound nothing like them. This is a record with a sense of fun, but it's also sweet and touching; at the same time, it's as quiet as it's lively even if the vocals can be rather on the strained side.
When '43 Pence Worth of Luck' starts up, you could be forgiven for thinking it was something straight outta Nashville, all eager keyboards and lively guitars - and then Paul Yeadon's vocals kick in and the song becomes rather better. So it continues, as upbeat tunes rub shoulders with the more melancholy. As you listen to the album, there's a nagging feeling that they sound like 'Dizzy Up the Girls'-era Goo Goo Dolls. 'Unlikely Cavalry' is a case in point, except for the lyrics; you won't hear Americans singing about tea ('If the drugs don't kill you, they'll drown you in tea').
A few listens to the 'Dust Ghosts' reveal that The Wireless Stores can do quiet and melancholy just as well. In fact, 'Scissors as Fingers' is one the best songs on the album. It's unassuming and sort of minds its own business but slowly lays claim to your heart with you realising. The same could be said for 'Chewing Gum Stars' but for it's distinctly upbeat chorus and the Goo Goo Dolls sound which comes out again. There's a gorgeous melody and the whole track swells with passion and love. Then we're thrown a curve ball; 'We Rattle' is a bit Feeder-like, gone all serious and with different vocals. There's no trace of the American country rock so evident elsewhere and to be fair, it's a relief and a shame there's not more of it.
'Not Going Gone' almost usurps 'Scissors as Fingers' as the best track on the album, and indeed it's lush and romantic (in a good way of course). By turns acoustic and electric, this spare but filled song will coax tears from the hardest heart. 'Dust Ghosts' is a journey of sorts, lively at the beginning and quieter and subdued at the end with 'The Dust Ghosts' a perfect ending. That doesn't mean it's not uplifting, instead it's everything the album is distilled in one song.
If Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. is your thing, then this should be just the sort of thing you want. This an album of many moods and a few surprises - well worth the money.