The past is the new today. I’ve heard that said many a time and there is a strong possibility that time travel will never need to be invented as all that has happened will simply happen again if you keep looking at your watch. What brought on these existential thoughts? One listen to “Rapture Party” by The Joshua Hotel.
With laconic vocals and those edgy guitars much to the fore, this is an album that the kids won’t like it but, then again, the kids aren’t really kids anymore. They aren’t adults either yet The Joshua Hotel’s artistic intentions might well still seem curiously relevant to them as, with lyrics that seem less the result of thesaurus searching than playful beard scratching, it becomes possible for both the prematurely and actually old to forget, at least temporarily, about how you are going to pay the mortgage this month.
Maybe that is the reason for the interest in bands that sound like The Joshua Hotel do. Back when the price of a pint of a milk was of no concern to you or anyone else and all that mattered was looking good and being seen at all the righteously trendy places, life was altogether simpler. Nowadays the price a pint of milk is a major financial consideration so sounding like better days becomes something of a guilty pleasure and “Rapture Party” contains, with those art school styled lyrics, more than enough reasons to give all those rose tinted sentiments beloved of the oldies another stroke of two even if your life is nearer the start than the end.
So, when all is said and done, it is not so much the songs themselves as the way they make you feel. “Rapture Party” is an album that, perhaps fortunately, does not sound like an album of today yet can still be enjoyed even if you are not of a vintage to remember when all that you heard was all that you are currently hearing.
Best song: “Martin Amiss”
Verdict: Smarter than you might think.