Poly Styrene – Ghoulish
Single review submitted by Phil Lickley from .Wav Goodbye. To submit music reviews to All-Noise visit our music reviews submission page.
Though sadly no longer with us, the punk pioneer managed to complete a new album before her death earlier this year, from which second single – and first posthumous release – is ‘Ghoulish’.
Expecting something much punkier than this, ‘Ghoulish’ is in fact a much poppier song but one that seems very heavy on the production, Marianne Joan Elliott-Said’s vocals hidden among some loud instrumentation. Lyrically inspired by the death of Michael Jackson, it’s difficult to entirely make out the words because of the production drowning out the lyrics but after a few listens its catchiness makes itself known and sounds much more Debbie Harry than X-Ray Spex and the words do show themselves to be reflective of the life of such a singer, though the chorus of ‘I can see through your disguise / you’re quite a nice guy’ are maybe not as emotive as you’d expect from such a song and, indeed, such a personality to sing about.
