If you miss good ol’ American rock music performed with passion, a knack for melody and carefree coolness, have we got a band for you. Ghosts of Sunset is a New York City-based duo featuring singer/guitarist John Merchant and multi-instrumentalist Todd Long, but they called on a bunch of buds with resumés that include Eighties- and Nineties-era bands as diverse as Little Caesar, Bang Tango, Gene Loves Jezebel, The Verve Pipe and Enuff Z’ Nuff to help them make No Saints in the City. The result is a contemporary-sounding record with one foot in the hook-filled hair-metal era and the other one kicking somewhere in the timeless void in which the “good music” genre still resides.
In describing the origins of the band’s name, Merchant has cited numerous influences: “It really paid homage not only to the 1980s ‘hair metal’ scene we grew up on (Quiet Riot, Ratt, Mötley, Warrant, Faster Pussycat, GnR, etc.) but for music fans like ourselves whose tastes run pretty deep, it was a tip of the hat to the predecessors like The Doors, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield.” That said, Ghosts of Sunset doesn’t wallow in the excess of the predecessors, musical or otherwise. These taut songs eschew hedonism to chronicle life in the less-glitzy parts of New York City.
No Saints in the City is Ghosts of Sunset’s full-length debut (following the 2020 EP, Headed West), but here’s hoping they keep making music like this to haunt our nostalgia-singed ears.
Track Listings:
1. Tonight
2. No Saints in the City
3. Look Me Up
4. If You’re Not Coming Back
5. Queen of Used To Be
6. Love Ain’t Enough
7. Bastard of the Bowery
8. Puzzled Heart
9. Tonight You’re Okay
10. Us Against Them
11. Something To Believe
Printer Friendly Page
Send to a Friend
