A. Swayze & the Ghosts - Let's Live a Life Better Than This (2024)

Australian post-punk five-piece A. Swayze and the Ghosts – songwriters Andrew Swayze (vocals), Ben von Fürstenburg (guitar, synthesizer) and Zac Blain (drums), with Kieran Daly (guitar) and Joe Berry (bass) – are back with their sophomore full-length Let’s Live A Life Better Than This, one that deserves a big soundsystem. The duality of the album title is expressed in powerful lyrics (“It’s a sick kinda world // But it’s a beautiful life”), but even more so in the rousing and grooving music that invites escapist dancing. The ten original songs come across like an electrifying autumn storm, which lands firmly with opening track Tell You All The Time, swells to hurricane force – via the disturbing but catchy three minutes of He Is Dead (“Wasn’t it John Lennon who said … // Fuck John Lennon // He Is dead”) – in floor-burners Sick Kinda WRLD (an awesome dance hit for the ages) and Cool Cucumber (reminiscent of LCD Soundsystem), continues to an impressive wall of noise in Friends (heartfelt and personal), to finally settle down in the ballad Puppy Baby, after which a final aftershock follows with the impressive closer Before I Left. It’s a breathtaking experience.

Emerging from a touring hiatus, the band turned inwards to fight the claustrophobic constraints of genre they found themselves in. ‘Let's Live a Life Better Than This’ - self-produced in a first for the band and mixed by Andy Savours (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Rina Sawayama, Arctic Monkeys) - is the dawning of a new era for A. Swayze & the Ghosts. Densely packed with tight, punchy drums and percussion, Roland and Korg synths and a touch of saxophone, the guitar-led, dance-forward record signifies a zealous transformation, brimming with a renewed energy and intensity, non-traditional rock elements and an unwavering sense of passion and commitment.