Tis the season to be jolly… Richard James Turner returns as Synthetic Villains and this time it’s festive.
Without a hint of irony, but with a dollops of love, Richard has made for us a Xmas album. Oh how passe, one might think, as staid as Mary Poppins on Xmas Eve. But no worry, as sure as Saint Nick will squeeze his magical bottom down the chimney, Richard has invested his album with invention, charm and mastery.
Alongside his own compositions, there are a sleigh load of covers of the old classics, those songs that last the generations. For me this is where the album shines: in particular his ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ and ‘We Three Kings’ are particularly delightful, all shimmering elan. ‘We Three Kings’ has a snaking guitar lead that turns it into a charming garage rocker, ready for Mark E Smith guest vocals, when Mark rises on Easter Sunday. ‘God Rest Ye… ” has the lolloping gait of Ealing Comedy hi-jinks, George Cole’s on the make again.
His ‘Carol of the Bells’, known to this humble writer as that song from Home Alone, is transformed into a darkly hauntological John Carpenter inspired chiller. Perfect for a Xmas creepy movie.
The pleasing thing is while there is electro aplenty here this is not really an electronic instrumental album, there are more of those on bandcamp than unwanted Vienetta’s in the North. Make no mistake, Richard is a guitarist first before all things and the focus of each song is his Fender Mustang. A Tom Verlaine disciple, Richard has made a guitar album with electro adornments, not the other way around. He has a guitarists eye and world view.
https://syntheticvillains.bandcamp.com/album/christmas-album
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