White Light Motorcade, 'Thank You Goodnight' (Octone), 18/03/03

White Light Motorcade come over all Black Rebel on this, their debut album. The only difference is, their much better at being the sleazed up, dark power rock combo than Virgin’s moody Mary Chain wannabes.

Opening tracks 'Open Your Eyes' and 'It’s Happening' cram more ideas into their three and a half minutes (surely the scientific perfection of pop music length?) than the entire of BRMC’s rather turgid second outing. The latter takes Stooges like fuzz bass and welds it to a chorus that brings Ash to mind. 

The rest of the album seems to have difficulty sustaining the breakneck pace of this opening salvo, but when that was so good you can forgive the band for taking their foot off the gas a little. 'We Come Together' is a brooding masterpiece of yearning and tension and syncopated closer 'On Top' sounds like Storm in Heaven era Verve but at double speed, all feedback and driving bass. The only slight criticism that can be levelled at 'Thank you, Goodnight' is that certain tracks, namely 'My Way' and 'Dream Day' seem to serve no useful purpose other than dragging the record up to LP length, wishy washy ‘reflective’ pieces that do nothing but detract from the listeners enjoyment of what preceded them.

On the whole, however, these are minor quibbles and one suspects, from the energy that flows through the more up tempo tracks, that these are not the direction that the band is heading. 'Thank You Goodnight' pulls together all the things a great debut should, a handful of great songs and a real focus and excitement that makes it’s way across to the listener. The lead guitar of Mark Lewis is also worthy of being singled out for praise. Bright lights beckon!