Kung Fu Jesus
Celestial Gold
(Gargleblast)
I don't know what that iconoclastic band name conjures up for you (it's actually one anonymous musician from Lanarkshire) but the style here is neither high-kicking rock'n'roll nor gospel, although there's spiritual nourishment to be had from the harmonies that bedeck a few of the rumble-tumble earworm choruses.
Instead there's something of The Phantom Band fused with The Beta Band in the groove that steadily builds across opening track Friends To The End, while the bright pop tune at the heart of The Death Of Penny Lane is nicely at odds with jaundiced lyrics that describe the street's decay from its Beatles fame (via music that owes more to the 1990s crop of Liverpool bands than those of 1960s Merseyside).
As Celestial Gold progresses, however, a niggling doubt whispers that there aren't enough top-notch melodies to carry the album all the way to the end. The words, too, can fall short with a disappointing rhyme ("The royal family are not what they seem/They're a different species from a human being") and choruses hewn from phrases on repeat.
By the time we reach the acoustic strum over hip hop beats of When My Heart Stops, it's less The Beta Band overall that's Kung Fu Jesus's inspiration than one single song: Dry The Rain
Alan Morrison
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