The Helicopter of the Holy Ghost - Afters

 "Afters" is the debut album by alternative act The Helicopter of the Holy Ghost.  The songs on this album were actually written way back in 2001 before Billy Reeves (formally of The Audience) had his accident.  On this album he teamed up with Mark Morris on vocals as well as Crayola Lectern and Mark Peters as well as a whole host of other folk who appear on the 9-track album.  But the names I mentioned above seem to be the main people.  

My draw towards this band were that Mark Morris was on vocals.  I have always been a big fan of The Bluetones who were huge in the 1990s and early 2000s.  I did wonder if this record would end up sounding like a Bluetones record as his vocals are so distinguishable that I thought he was almost type casted, thus anything else he would do would just sound like The Bluetones.  But no, I was wrong.  While The Bluetones are full of jangling guitars with soaring/singalong choruses.  This is a lot more subtle a record and in terms of instruments the focus is on the piano and synths.  Which these days does seem like a rarity in bands.  Sure, you get the likes of Coldplay who will do a few tracks per album where Chris Martin plays the piano.  But I can't think of many modern-day acts bar Keane who use the piano as the driving force of their music.

So, what this does mean for this album is that it brings about a refreshing change to what's about in the industry now.  But is it what the people want?  They released a few singles in the run up to this including "I will never hurt" which has a lovely cornet section.  These songs did grab the attention of BBC 6 music which gave them some airplay.  The album was also picked up by loads of the music mags who reviewed the album which I suppose is no surprise given who the band is made up of and the fact they got signed to the much-loved Kscope label. A label I am a big fan of.  But it is to my surprise that on Spotify the album hasn't really taken off yet as none of the tracks have surpassed 1,500 streams yet. I'm not sure if it is because people are buying it rather than streaming as they did get to number 14 in the independent charts. But I was surprised by the lack of streams, nevertheless.

The main reason for being surprised though is because this is a really good album and for me it is refreshingly different from what’s out there.  There is even a nine-minute track on their called "Tony Got a Car".  First to get the negative out the way from this track, there is 20 seconds of silence at the end of this track which doesn't need to be there.  But the tracks itself I love as although it's 9 minutes, it doesn't try to be "Stairway to heaven” but does have its peak in the middle of the track.  It's like a bit of a pyramid in terms of the structure to the song as I say the peak is in the middle and has a nice long outro.  I do like when bands give themselves the freedom to flesh ideas out a bit and let the songs expand. Especially when the result is as good as this.  

Like I said, this is a piano driven album but that doesn't mean there aren't other instruments on here stealing the limelight every now and then. For example, in "You too" there is an absolutely sublime guitar solo which is so crisp and pure.  I think the fact it's really the only true solo on here is what makes it even more special and makes me appreciate it even more.  The strings come in to finish the album on "I didn't" which is another wonderful track, which gently builds. Again, not into an epic but more of a fitting climax to end this encapsulating album.

Overall, this is a great album which gets better and better with every listen. I love how the piano is so dominant.  Growing up, piano is an instrument which so many kids learn yet it seems folk who start bands are keener on the guitar.  Or maybe I have just missed the boat and there are other bands out there who use piano more. Even so I do think there are not enough bands like this in the mainstream.