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Rocking Horse Music Club return with their fourth album The Last Pink Glow: An Interpretation of Jack Kerouac\u2019s The Haunted Life<\/em>, featuring a cameo with the legendary Genesis keyboard player, Tony Banks. This melodic, expansive album is based on Jack Kerouac\u2019s unfinished \u2018coming of age\u2019 novella \u2018The Haunted Life\u2019. Kerouac may be better known to many for his seminal Beat Generation \u2018On the Road\u2019 novel of 1957. \u2018The Haunted Life\u2019 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.<\/p>\n The album sleeve notes explain:<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s the summer of 1941. Peter Martin\u2026 returns to his hometown\u2026 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 \u2013 and the entire country \u2013 are pulled into an ever-widening global conflagration\u2026 This is a tale about the end of childhood innocence, the fraying of familial bonds, and the uncertainty brought about by war.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n The album opens cinematically with The Haunted Life<\/em> as a guitar chimes over a synth backwash. Justin Cohn\u2019s 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<\/em> is an excellent opening which immediately entices the listener into this narrative. <\/p>\n