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Album reviews Music

New Country Rehab – Ghost Of Your Charms

NEW COUNTRY REHAB play the Horseshoe April 4. See listings. Rating: NNNN


Ferocious folk-rockers New Country Rehab promised more original tunes following their self-titled 2011 debut album, which included three Hank Williams songs and a Bruce Springsteen cover. The local four-piece’s second album delivers on that and more.

Ghost Of Your Charms marks a step forward in songwriting, bandleader/violinist John Showman’s vocals sound clearer and more confident, and there’s a focus on storytelling, harmonies and arrangements (which may surprise, given the band’s reputation for wild abandon at shows).

Though the album remains rooted in folk, rock and country traditions, some of the best moments occur when NCR flirt with roots-pop, like on bursting political single Luxury Motel and the sweeping, poetic Back In Time.

It closes with Wayne Kemp’s Image Of Me and Hank Williams’s Too Many Parties And Too Many Pals. As usual for this band, their versions are marked departures from the originals.

Top track: Luxury Motel

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