An 80s stadium vibe hangs heavy and layers thick on ‘Phantom Radio’ - hell, there are hints of 80s U2 about ‘Harvest Home’ and the shimmery synths and by rights it should be awful, but it’s far from awful.
Lanegan avoids the pomposity of U2 and instead concentrates his energy on crafting some decent tunes.
Despite the retro sound, the album was composed primarily using extremely contemporary technology - namely the Funk Box app on his mobile phone. “I didn’t bother to hook up my 909 and 808 this time,” he says, “because the app had ’em. I’d write drum parts with it then add music with the synthesizer or the guitar.”
He also explains that while their influence may not have been evident, The Screaming Trees were huge fans of British post-punk artists like Echo And The Bunnymen, Rain Parade, the Gun Club. “I just waited until I was in my late forties before I started ripping it off,” is how he puts it.
The sound and feel of those bands pervades the entirety of ‘Phantom Radio’ and while the most overt rip-off is ‘Torn Red heart’ which is virtually a cover of Joy Division’s ‘Atmosphere’, Lanegan proves that ripping off bands is just fine when it’s done well. It helps of course that Lanegan is an excellent songwriter, and a singer with real soul. From the anthemic country rock of sparse, downtempo ‘Harvest Home’, which swerves into darkness courtesy of some icy keyboard sounds, via more minimal tracks, Lanegan explores the interior of classic dark pop construction.
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It’s the fractal post-punk guitars that flicker round the metronomic clatter of piston-pumping mechanised drums and steely synths that fill the album life, as well as contrasting light and shade, mechanical and organic.
If ‘Judgement Time’ feels more like a sketch than a fully realised song, it’s contrasted with the crisp yet downbeat electropop of ‘Floor of the Ocean’ which has subtle hints of Soft Cell and New Order, landing in She Wants Revenge territory. No bad thing, that’s for sure.
‘Seventh Day’ comes on like Depeche Mode circa 1983 (and more than a little bit like Petty Hate Machine era Nine Inch Nails) and the prickly ‘The Killing Season’ is gloriously bleak. Acoustic guitar led ‘I Am the Wolf’ is more an amalgamation of Johnny cash and Leonard Cohen than it is Lloyd Cole, but Lanegan never loses sight of the chorus that bursts into the light, the hook, the melody. And so it is that ‘Phantom Radio’, while being an album that feels very different from Lanegan’s previous output still carries his distinctive hallmarks. Moreover, despite wearing its influences on its sleeve, it’s still an album of character that feels anything but derivative.
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