Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By A.Swayze & The Ghosts, Bandcamp 2020.
Time for some Australian garage rock. A.Swayze & The Ghosts are a Hobart based rock outfit and Paid Salvation is their debut album.
They have previously released a single, Smooth Sailing, in 2017 and a self-titled EP later the same year.
They play classic post punk garage rock and they do it very well.
They are currently signed to Ivy League Records but they would be equally at home on Britain’s Dirty Water Records.
What you get from them is high energy guitar driven (and angst riven) power punk that has plenty of the Ramones and Clash DNA in it.
And they do it so well that they put a lot of the material from the home of punk in the old dart to shame.
The tempo is insistent and the lyrics strident in the best punk tradition.
They were the big hit of the 2018 BIGSOUND festival and were praised by Double J who said that “they’re an unhinged rock’n’roll party band from Tasmania that are a very important reminder that garage rock is still the best style of music when it’s done well.”
A.Swayze & The Ghosts are part of a world-wide movement among many disenchanted young people who have rediscovered the energy and commitment of the early 1980s and ‘90s music as an antidote to much of the puerile pop confectionary that floods the airwaves today.
Most of these band’s efforts however are nowhere near as polished as Swayze and his band who can really play well.
The 12 tracks on this album are all class efforts because they are both good songs and the recording process has captured the sound and energy of a live performance.
The lead single, Suddenly, is a standout among an album full of wonderful tracks. There’s a clip on YouTube.
