Chin up! Grin and bear it! Gallows humour… it seems to be a thing that we always try to maintain a perky disposition regardless of the worst of circumstances, and we will employ dark humour and quip as a way of sidestepping the realities of the inevitable. Central to the human condition is a life-devouring fear of death. Many will claim that they don’t think about it, but this is simply denial, and the reason so many people die without having made a will. Building a wall and completely blanking a subject is no ‘not thinking about it’. I’m not entirely convinced this is where The Buring Hell stand on the subject, but as they put it, ‘with ‘Ghost Palace,’ the band presents their most joyful collection of songs about death to date, always finding something to smile about in the decay.’
As they also put it, The Burning Hell have been ‘writing party anthems about the apocalypse since before the apocalypse arrived at the party.’ One might call that somewhat obsessive, but it’s hard to blame them for feeling apocalyptic, given, well, everything.
But their brand of breezy, even jaunty-sounding US indie feels far from apocalyptic. If anything, it feels more like the quirky kind of fun of They Might be Giants. You might even call it nerdy pop. Party tunes is spot on. You can get down to this… and if you pay attention to the lyrics, you can probably get pretty down, too. ‘
‘Celebrities in Cemeteries’ is positively jaunty, but at the same time, does take a pop at the morbid obsession people have with attending the graves of the late great. Have you ever seen Jim Morrison’s grave? No? You’re probably in the minority. ‘Brazil Nuts and Blue Curacao’ brings a slow sashaying holiday vibe, with steel drums and a bubbling bass providing the backdrop to lyrics depicting a dystopian societal collapse. ‘Bottle of Chianti, Cheese and Charcuterie Board’ is such a wonderful title when it comes to encapsulating middle-class mundanity and deserves a special mention for that alone, never mind its being a Sparks-like electropop groover that’s a clear album highlight.
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Clever, quippy, and centred around oppositions and juxtapositions, ‘Ghost Palace’ is an album which, if delivered with less panache, could be spectacularly bleak, or, far worse, spectacularly naff. Lyrically, it’s dark at times, but rich with observation and wit, and it’s bounced along with some nifty songsmithery, and it’s smart and ultimately enjoyable.
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