Neon Horse

Album Review

Neon Horse are an alternative CCM band taking a page from the old "keep the members' names and faces a secret" playbook that was last used effectively with the minor new wave band Blanket of Secrecy in 1982. Various names that have been suggested in the online Christian alternative community include singers Allan Aguirre of Scattered Few and Mark Solomon of the Crucified (who has been almost universally pegged as the lead singer) and multi-instrumentalist/producer Jason Martin from Starflyer 59. But the point of the anonymity is to leave the focus entirely on the music, so although Neon Horse has been promoted as a "Southern rock" album, it's actually more of an odd combination between the new wave revival (synths predominate on several songs, and one of the vocalists occasionally slips into a voice that sounds equally influenced by Klaus Nomi and the B-52's Fred Schneider, especially on the rollicking "Crazy Daisy" and the glammy trash-rock of "The Bathroom Wall") and the tongue in cheek hard rock of the Eagles of Death Metal (most notable on the first single "Cuckoo!" and the riff-heavy "Speed Killz"). That sounds like a combination that should not work at all, but the punky energy and nagging pop hooks of tunes like "I Know, I Just Don't Care" and the admirable concision of the album as a whole — only two of these twelve songs break the three-minute mark — makes Neon Horse a peculiar but highly entertaining listen.