These Colors Run

Set International

Ghostfinger frontman Richie Kirkpatrick is as mysterious as his chosen moniker. Is he a rock god, or a singer-songwriter, or a psychedelic provocateur? Is he Nick Cave, Graham Parker, Frank Black or Meatloaf (trust me)? Some people have even said Prince. It's not that he's a chameleon, it's that the scene is always shifting behind him.

Starting with the startling album opener, Aminal Eye (sic), which matches muted guitar with softly played piano and the muffled thump of a kick drum before exploding into a driving heavy metal thunderstorm, Kirkpatrick and Ghostfinger's debut, These Colors Run, is a bipolar kaleidoscope of sound.

The song Content starts off like the Rolling Stones fronted by a Southern Frank Black at a ragtime Russian circus, and somehow morphs into an obscenity-laced rap-like call-and-response chorus. Devil crosses Old Crow Medicine Show's old-time punkgrass with early Afghan Whigs, and inserts a sincere heavy metal guitar solo.

Gram Parsons pops up as an influence, albeit with the lyrical tomfoolery of a jackass jester, on Lady. Love My Head sees Ghostfinger turn to an unabashed form of late '80s post-prog metal a la Megadeth, but, like almost every other tune on the album, it takes a schizophrenic turn to dreamy balladry during the breakdown.

These Colors Run is an accomplishment as much as it is an album. It's a musical Mensa puzzle that Ghostfinger dared to put together. Somehow these bastard broken parts were made into songs that deconstruct convention without ever sounding confused. It's difficult to say whether there's a single song that might find its way onto a mix tape, but, like the work of Faith No More or other genre destroyers, These Colors Run makes for an awfully adventurous listen. Tell Jason which song you leave on infinite repeat at jwilkins@nashvillerage.com.GHOSTFINGER