The album gets off to a delicious start with "No Ice Please," a song thumping with great, raw, powerful blues. You might think of it as back porch blues, provided that porch is attached to a sort of waystation for joyful and playful demons.And yeah, I want the drink, the full drink, and its full effects, so don't fill that glass with water, frozen or otherwise. "Don't water it down, don't you water it down/No ice please, no ice." Of course, when I glanced at this track list, in these twisted days, the first thing that popped into my mind was the evil organization known as ICE. No ICE, please. I love how polite she is here, "No ice please," which works in delightful contrast to the wonderfully mean edge of the music. It is energetic opening to the album. Then "Mine" establishes a good groove right away, a groove that comes out of a cool, dark place, and soon we are immersed in that place, even before recognizing it as home, as our current state. "Millions of hands you'll never shake/Billions of souls you'll never meet/Under trillions of stars you'll not once name/Yet you think you own/A portion of the sky/You're already planning on taxing/The next generation for air to breathe." Ghalia's vocal approach here is different from the first track, and somehow even more captivating and enticing. She draws us closer with every syllable she utters, casting a spell over us, her willing victims. This is a fantastic song, featuring some intriguing, haunting guitar work. Ah, who owns us at this point?
"Let me take you for a ride," Ghalia sings at the beginning of "Ride." Ah, like we have any choice in the matter. She has us, and she knows it. This song, which she wrote with Jeremy Joyce, has a great groove, one to get you dancing. It's a song that is more in the pop realm, but a kind of bewitching pop of a slightly altered reality, a great dance song playing in a club of eternal night. No need to worry about tomorrow, the dawn ain't coming. This track features some delicious stuff on bass. "You're the lucky devil/Flying like an angel." Then Ghalia takes us back into more solid blues territory with "Where Do We Go," evident from that guitar work at the beginning. Ghalia Volt immediately captivates us with her voice, and it's a moment before we realize she is asking a question, "Where, where do we go/When we're dead and gone/When we're dead and gone/When we're dead and gone?" She's already put us in mind of an eternal night anyway, so this question seems natural. She then asks if we'll ever meet again. I think when we're dead and gone, we're dead and gone, and there is no meeting ever again after that. But Ghalia seems to have access to the darkness, and maybe with her special eyes she catches glimpses of something beyond this realm. Or maybe it is that she's able to mesmerize those legendary forces, coax from them the power to determine her destination. "It don't matter where we're goin' then/When we're dead and gone."
"Wrong Horse" has a hopping energy. in part because of its beat. "You've been betting on the wrong/Horse way too long." Oh yes, probably, so I stopped betting altogether. I love the way the guitar takes on its own fiery force, that section ending up feeling like the heart of the piece. "Wild spirits are hard to tame/A free soul can't be claimed." The spirit of this vocalist, of this band, would be damn near impossible to tame. This track has some unexpected whistling at the very end. Then "Lucifer's Grip" takes hold of us in its opening moments and shakes us about. Once we've succumbed, submitted, the grip relaxes, but only somewhat. "Yes, I saw it coming/Saw it coming, yes I did/Saw it coming, yes I did," Ghalia sings early in this one. I doubt nothing she tells us. Almost halfway through, there is a moment that feels like a darker version of a cool moment from Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." The raw and exciting testimony of this song almost has me believing the devil is real, as Ghalia's voice sometimes seems to be coming from the other side, like she is on the edge of two worlds, existing in two places simultaneously.
"Wreckin' & Rollin'" is a fun one, one to get you dancing. It seems this song can get the whole world swaying to its rhythm. "Rollin' in like a tornado/Spinnin' and spinnin' nice and slow." And I love it when the guitar takes off in the second half, leading the way out of the storm. That's followed by "Burn The House Down," the album's title track, which eases in, opening on a scene of a sort of destruction. "You tore down the hallway frames/Tossed our pictures of memory lane/Gave furniture to donation/All carried out by an army of salvation." Wow, just rearranging the name of the organization that way gives it a whole different vibe, a different sense. Ghalia Volt is a creative force not just in her vocal prowess, but in the way she constructs a song. "Piece by piece, you wiped out the past/So you might as well burn the house down." This song features an especially exciting and strong vocal performace.
"River Song" kind of creeps in. And Ghalia, when she comes in, keeps her voice low at first. Even her humming is mesmerizing, haunting. Interestingly, later in the song she sings, "Forgive me, babe, for what you've been through/You said I put a spell on you/But call it a curse, you call it a curse." Oh man, she knows precisely the effect she's had on us, though I doubt anyone would call it a curse. There is another interesting moment when the music relaxes a bit, opens, breathes. And then the pounding of the drum returns, while we are treated to some cool guitar work, and Ghalia's next vocal section is even more compelling. There is a psychedelic element here, which is wonderful. This is one of my personal favorite tracks. It's followed by "Let Yo' Hair Down," which has a great, heavy rhythm, and yet provides a chance to shake loose. It's like the blues and rock were played through a dance club's system, affected by it, with certain lines repeated. The album then concludes with "Black And White," which has a sweeter, acoustic sound. "I got your back, babe, I got your back," Ghalia sings here. We all need to hear someone say that to us.
CD Track List
- No Ice Please
- Mine
- Ride
- Where Do We Go
- Wrong Horse
- Lucifer's Grip
- Wreckin' & Rollin'
- Burn The House Down
- River Song
- Let Yo' Hair Down
- Black And White
Burn The House Down was released on May 15, 2026 on Ruf Records.
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