Rocking Horse Music Club return with their fourth album The Last Pink Glow: An Interpretation of Jack Kerouac’s The Haunted Life, featuring a cameo with the legendary Genesis keyboard player, Tony Banks. This melodic, expansive album is based on Jack Kerouac’s unfinished ‘coming of age’ novella ‘The Haunted Life’. Kerouac may be better known to many for his seminal Beat Generation ‘On the Road’ novel of 1957. ‘The Haunted Life’ was written in 1944 when Kerouac was 22 years old, but was not published until 2014. This semi-autobiographical novella is told from the point of view of a young man yearning for one last long summer of leisure as war clouds build around the world. This is a challenging source upon which to base a rock album, but the Rocking Horse Music Club have created an evocative and imaginative album, conjuring a variety of moods and scenes.
The album sleeve notes explain:
‘It’s the summer of 1941. Peter Martin… returns to his hometown… He and his friends attempt to spend the summer revisiting the carefree days of youth, but they cannot ignore the wars raging around the world. They know that it will only be a matter of time before they – and the entire country – are pulled into an ever-widening global conflagration… This is a tale about the end of childhood innocence, the fraying of familial bonds, and the uncertainty brought about by war.’
The album opens cinematically with The Haunted Life as a guitar chimes over a synth backwash. Justin Cohn’s melodic, pleasing voice comes in over the guitar and percussion, and it is clear we have talented and captivating singer. This flowing piece builds as keyboards join the main theme, and Cohn sings an earworm chorus until we reach a fluid guitar passage in the middle. The tempo builds towards a great finale with the guitar really coming to the fore (as there are four guitarists named in the credits it is difficult to attribute the players of particular passages on the album.) Haunted is an excellent opening which immediately entices the listener into this narrative.
The diversity of this album is exemplified on the distinctly jazzy It’s the Small Things which swings along with sultry trumpet from Wes Thurber and jazzy guitar from Mike McAdam.
The Rocking Horse Music Club’s associations with Genesis goes right back to their Anthony Phillips inspired 2019 album Which Way the Wind Blows, and they continue that link by collaborating with Tony Banks in the writing and performance of The Haunted Life. The feel of this piece could easily have fitted on to Banks’ 1979 album A Curious Feeling. This delightful song is filled with classic Banks chords and lovely piano play, softly supporting Justin Cohn’s sweetly melancholic voice. His smooth voice is reminiscent of Noel McCalla, who sung on Mike Rutherford’s Smallcreep’s Day 1980 album, and who also appeared on three songs from Rocking Horse Music Club’s previous widescreen concept 2022 album Circus of Wire Dolls. The Haunted Life sparkles like a summer’s day imbued with a sense that time is running out and summer must fade away into winter, just as the main character must grow up and move on.
One of the main highlights of The Last Pink Glow is the more expansive and ambitious If We’re Silent & We Listen, which intuitively blends a more rock-oriented approach with some great orchestral strings with Emma Black, Matthew Kettle, Lucy Jeal and Anna DeBruin, recorded at Abbey Road Studios. If We’re Silent & We Listen also features some great drumming from Eric Wagley and just like the rest of the album, some cracking vocals from Cohn, with lyrics focusing on the experience of war for those outside America in 1941.
The Ballad of Joe Martin takes the album in abrupt left turn towards Americana, with strings and some particularly skilled work from Myron Kibbee on slide and baritone guitars, as well as mandolin! One could imagine Bruce Hornsby and the Range playing this piece – that is a good thing. Changing Channels portrays the main protagonist thinking about how he can change, and it rolls along freely with infectious hooks and chorus. In contrast The Ballad of Wesley Martin is much mellower, contemplating the departure of Peter’s brother which haunts him. The song is embroidered with a whimsical clarinet from Simon White and Cohn’s voice is softly understated throughout as he thinks back with sadness about his loss.
The consistency of this otherwise excellent album wanes to a degree with the unremarkable Splitting Atoms and vocoder-loaded but meandering Restless Wanderers. Never fear because this genre- defying album grabs your attention again, and weighs in with a rocking excursion into blues with Big City Small Town Blues which swaggers and bristles with energy and attitude. Brian Coombes, formerly of 90’s progressive rock band Tristan Park, excels throughout the album on a bewildering array of keyboards, but he stands out here with some excellent Wurlitzer piano and vibrantly flowing Hammond organ, backing an excellent blues guitar solo. This album concludes with the appropriately contemplative and regretful The Last Pink Glow as Peter’s last summer of innocence fades, evoked by a particularly touching vocal from Cohn. This is a curiously extended piece which covers a range of emotions for the main character.
The Rocking Horse Music Club’s previous outings were rather more pastoral and softly melodic in tone. In The Last Pink Glow they explore much darker moments with insight and feeling. The songwriting credits in the majority of songs on this atmospheric and evocative album include Jack Kerouac as the band used some of his words in the songs. This suggests that the band were very respectful of and invested in Kerouac’s original and largely unknown story. This respect and interest in their inspiration shines through in the skill and touch conveyed in their composition and performance of this album.
The Last Pink Glow: An Interpretation of Jack Kerouac’s The Haunted Life is an outstanding album with great melodies and hooks, which blends genres imaginatively, conjuring up images and evoking feelings with great musical and lyrical skill.
TRACK LISTING
01. The Haunted Life (6:10)
02. It’s The Small Things (3:52)
03. The Haunted Life (4:40)
04. If We’re Silent & We Listen (5:50)
05. The Ballad Of Joe Martin (3:37)
06. Changing Channels (4:13)
07. The Ballad Of Wesley Martin (5:24)
08. Splitting Atoms (7:40)
09. Restless Wanderers (2:40)
10. Big City Small Town Blues (4:40)
11. The Last Pink Glow (12:49)
Total Time – 61:37
MUSICIANS
Justin Cohn – Vocals, Guitar
Brian Coombes – Piano, Hammond Organ, Mellotron, Wurlitzer, Keyboards, Taurus Pedals, Sleigh Bells, Vocoder, Triangle, Vocals
Brenden Harisiades – Bass
Myron Kibbee – Electric, Slide & Baritone Guitars, Mandolin
Mike McAdam – Guitar
Andrew Rotunno – Guitar, Vocals
~ With:
Tony Banks – Keyboards (3)
Josh Kimball – Additional & Ambient Guitars, Programming (1 & 2)
Emma Black – Cello (1,4 & 5)
Matthew Kettle – Viola (1 & 4)
Lucy Jeal – Violin (1 & 4)
Anna DeBruin – Violin (1,4 & 5)
Thea Spiers – Violin (5)
Jamie Hutchinson – Violin (5)
Rachel Robson – Viola (5)
Ian Rathbone – Viola (5)
Rick Black – Piano (7), Synths (8), Hammond Organ (10)
Simon White – Clarinet (7) & Alto Saxophone (9)
Kate St. John – Co-Producer ~ String Arrangements
Evelyn Cormier – Backing Vocals
Caroline Carter – Backing Vocals
Michelle Coombes – Backing Vocals
Katie Dobbins – Backing Vocals
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Independent
Country of Origin: UK
Date of Release: 9th May 2025
DISCOGRAPHY
– Every Change of Seasons (2018)
– Which Way the Wind Blows (2019)
– Circus of Wire Dolls (2022)
– The Last Pink Glow: An Interpretation of Jack Kerouac’s The Haunted Life (2025)
LINKS
Rocking Horse Music Club – Website | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram
