Nu- rave this, designer drugs that and band names that must begin with The. It seems this is what the current climate is hell bent on. To say that substance has been left on its knees in favour of style would be melodramatic, yet the search for authenticity in popular music seems to descend like well balanced people in the celebrity big brother house. Authenticity you ask? In layman’s terms and in this case relates to truth.
Tonight Cherry Ghost (aka Simon Aldred and his band) step up to the plate to bring something extremely original to one of Manchester’s most overrated venues, that of symbolic honesty. Aldred’s distinctive lyricisms on ‘People Help The People’ sounds like an unconscious soliloquy that one wouldn’t dare to record. Its imagery evolves with a delicate maternal optimism and its polysemic nature enables it to apply itself upon numerable levels depending upon circumstance. His blues infused trawl of ‘People…help the people... and if you’re homesick give me your hand and I’ll hold it’ may on paper sound apathetic, yet I can assure you, it couldn’t be further from the truth.
‘Mathematics’ wreaks of the utter desperation encompassed by the sinking yearning for that certain someone and ‘Dead Mans Suit’ depicts everything of a man in the right place but wrong time. The influences are there for all to see from Johnny Cash to Willie Nelson and even a tinge of Richard Hawley for good measure. However, Aldred’s fundamental capabilities are undeniably situated within the unforgettable chorus, with distinctive clarity and infectious simplicity. Cherry Ghost’s music is timeless; you must see it to believe it, I suggest you catch him before he goes stellar.
Sam Kershaw
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