Hey, remember the 80's? Neon Horse does… whoever they are. Tooth & Nail's latest purported 'supergroup' may be comprised of former members of no less than twenty defunct L.A. bands. They may have combined totals in the hundreds of shows played in relative obscurity. They may also have an interesting story of how they met their 'larger-than-life' frontman- the eponymous 'Norman Horse' and started this new project with all the Neon. All this MAY be true… but who knows, since no one seems to know for sure who's actually in the band. Solid State (the hardcore/metal arm of T&N) did something similar with Demon Hunter's 'unveiling,' as the members were of former acts of some notoriety, and they wanted the music to speak for itself at the outset. Neon Horse is obviously following a similar path- both accomplishing that goal of 'not getting in the way of the music,' and stirring up interest in the album simply because people go crazy over mysteries (I won't be sharing my own speculations on who's in the Horse… sorry)……

(…all I'll say is STAVESACRE)

So is the sound worth putting 'out front' like that? Let me be blunt- you're either going to love Neon Horse and their late-70's/early-80's influences (complete with buzzing layers of guitar and synthetic grooves), or you'll hate it for being too different, for 'Norman's voice being too weird, for the manic nature of it, and its sheer uniqueness. Make no mistake- for all their inspirations of the past, the Horse was surprisingly refreshing to listen to. Simple rock n' roll. There's not really much else out there right now that has the flavor being resurrected here. David Bowie meets Alice Cooper meets early Starflyer and dark dance-pop with crunchy guitar ensues just as the Eurythmics show up…

After a while every song sounds basically the same, but they're all relatively short- the album only consuming a half-hour of your life. But they're catchy, danceable, sometimes dark and just… odd. Norman's voice might be too much to adjust to, but the overall sound is fun, and at least someone's taken a chance and made some relatively unique music. Perhaps not very accessible to the masses- but time will have to tell if this Horse ends up glue or not.