Long Road to Success?

Coventry four-piece Long Road Ghosts bring about the Return of the Underdogs…

There are probably many impressions, thoughts, or memories which come to mind about the historic city of Coventry. Though long gone are the days of plucky women riding naked on horseback, or wartime bombings and Cathedral ruins- or that curious ring road running through the centre. Actually the last part remains there still and rarely fails to anger a large number of out-of-towners. Yet Coventry itself has been standing peacefully for many years without disruption. So now during a serge and uprising of musical talent, can it all be rumbled again?

From the grey skies overhead, disturbed only by the three spires impaling from below; the Long Road Ghosts drop like tiny grunge bombs bearing nothing but an LP and a single promise.

It is in fact their debut album Return of the Underdogs that they not-so-modestly bear; and indeed a promise to smash to the forefront of all Coventry talent in a year that is set for the "Shackletons, Echo Empire and Long Road Ghosts to blast it" informs guitarist Peter Dowsett. And when is an underdog ever wrong? However, in this case it may all be a little less than accurate…

The album starts with a very Pistols-esque guitar riff over marching drums on Everything Good Goes Bad in the End, and although fairly striking; the track mainly sets the wheels rolling for the in-your-face monotony that you can expect to follow. Then Book of Matches as well as Workin’ 4 Nothin’ feel a bit as though they’re riding on that ‘indie band’ sound wagon which has long been worn out and stamped ‘generic’. Though the songs don’t deserve to be tarred with the same tired brush as perceivably ‘generic indie’; as they’re actually have a bit deeper than that. You can hear the tints of Oasis, Kasabian and 80s thrash metal bands such as Anthrax and Megadeth all woven- at times quite intricately- into the quick-fire pace.

And unfortunately, quick-fire pace is mostly what the band have to offer; a lot of the structure seems overly contrived and perhaps in places a little bit too over-thought. The emotion that the ‘Ghosts convey feels incredibly linear; and heart and soul is too often exchanged for anger and bitterness. For this reason it’s hard to feel connected with the songs, so until For the Million Times (You Say That You‘re Sorry) pipes in at track eight; you’d be hard-pushed to find any warmth. Yet this track is one of the most passionate of the entire album, and ska undercurrents do their best to force out the soft emotion beneath vocals which fail to shift from angry bursts. Actually a lot of the vocals, provided by singer Andy Kennel sound incredibly Cribs-like, especially in tracks 2 Steps and Collaborator; where it becomes quite imaginable that a Jarman was roped into production at some point.

Taking aboard all the grunge acts to precede them, the title track Return of the Underdogs is quite early-on My Chemical Romance- who also crafted their sound from the punk and grunge movements to come before. Plastic Gun is one of the more immediately stronger tracks of the album; and perhaps it’s prominence relates to how emotionally in-tune it seems after an amalgamation of mostly harsh thrashing. Then final track Couldn’t Sleep For the First Time is arguably the best, most catchy, vocally softer, and the baseline’s time to shine with a bouncy riff. The line "Another reason for a drink, or maybe 6. Been hanging over for years" stands out nicely as one of the most prominent and well-put lines to be found on Return of the Underdogs.

The Long Road Ghosts never falter to prove themselves as talented musicians; it’s just that they’re been thrown into a can of 80’s thrash metal and shaken about to disorientation; having had their souls ejected at some point along the way. They’ve emerged riled and ruffled, willing to overcompensate for the loss of natural direction by tweaking and primping each song to an almost prescribed format. They are still very much worth a listen- especially if your volume’s not turned up too high.