Music Review // Feral Ghost "Roll the Dice (Yellow Rhinestone Records)

Listen to "Roll the Dice" on your preferred music provider by clicking here.

One of the magical parts about music is the way which you can hear a song and the way it sounds can take you back to a very specific moment in your life.   "Roll the Dice" has a rock n roll way about it where it is paired with keys so that it sounds kind of like something from a church but not that much.   The first artist I heard within here right away is The Gadjits and that just takes me back to the early 2000's when I requested a Gadjits CD to review and the press person told me they had changed their sound (They went from ska to more of a southern Baptist feel)  Though Feral Ghost is not quite as heavy on the keys- it doesn't have that church organ way about it- and so I think that for religious purposes this song can actually be a little but more listenable.

When you don't think as much about the keys in here, this song overall has a sound which takes me back even further- to the 1980's and 1990's.   With elements of "The Future's So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)" by Timbuk 3, the theme song from "Pineapple Express" and Huey Lewis, this song just has that appeal of a film set in the time of John Hughes.   There are possibly too many of them to name off the top of my head, but back in the 1980's/1990's movies would have these opening credit scenes which would often be accompanied by songs which had the title to the movie in the chorus.   In that way, I could totally see "Roll the Dice" being a movie starring someone like John Cusack or John Candy.

What I would dare to say is my other favorite aspect of this song- aside from the music feeling almost like a party- is that the very theme of it is simply to, as the title states, "Roll the Dice".   Too often in life I think we're hindered by things which we do not do or merely think about doing.   The trouble is, we shouldn't just think about what could happen so much as just do it.  It's that overthinking which has often gotten me into trouble but when I've acted more out of impulse I've had more fun.   Sometimes you roll the dice and you go bust, sure, but that's life.  And the times when you roll the dice and hit it big, that's the reason why you should roll the dice in the first place.   Life is meant to be lived.

With this single song, Feral Ghost has my attention.  On one hand, I think this is the type of song I'd want to hear on playlists and even the radio throughout the summer.   At the same time, it'd be interesting to see what this leads to when Feral Ghost release their new album "Speed of Light" on March 21st, 2021.   Some songs could really get jamming with horns and I feel like there should be at least one power ballad with a saxophone solo.  But hey, there are some great guitar riffs in "Roll the Dice" so maybe Feral Ghost will take a different direction and surprise me.   Either way, the future looks bright for Feral Ghost from where I sit.