Rialto: Neon & Ghost Signs

It’s been 24 years since Rialto released an album – the cinematic, ’90s Britpop band, fronted by singer-songwriter Louis Eliot, split up in 2002. However, it’s been well worth the wait. This, their third offering, Neon & Ghost Signs, still flirts with moody, Bowie-like electronica and Duran Duran-style ’80s pop. Moreover, it embraces the dramatic, widescreen influences of John Barry and Ennio Morricone. It also explores some new territory.

Comeback single and album opener, ‘No One Leaves This Discotheque Alive’ is a big statement of intent. In fact, over handclaps and a pounding disco groove, a lascivious Eliot is on the prowl in a nightclub. He plays “the hound of London town, where the sheets are stained with gold.” It’s like a darker, sleazier cousin of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder on the Dancefloor.’

Eliot leaving behind a long-term relationship part-inspired the song. He wanted to immerse himself once more in London nightlife. Notably, this theme has always played a large part in the band’s music.

There’s an urgency and a celebratory feel to a lot of the songs on Neon & Ghost Signs. This is down to a near-death experience Eliot had six years ago. While holidaying in Spain, Eliot ended up in hospital for emergency surgery.

“What you might think is if you have a very close-to-death experience, you want to start looking after yourself,” he says. “I just went chasing full speed after my youth. I was just like, f*** it, I might not be here next week, so I’m just going to dive in!”

On that note, ‘I Want You’ is a glitter-soaked, glam rock stomp, and there’s more epic disco on the shimmering, ABBA-flavoured ‘Taking The Edge Off Me’, with its cascading piano and soaring strings.

The edgy and European-sounding ‘Put You On Hold’ is John Barry-meets-the-Bee-Gees – John Barry-Gibb, anyone? – while ‘Cherry’ is delicious, futuristic robo-funk that struts the same catwalk as Bowie’s ‘Fashion.’

There are some reflective moments amidst all the dancefloor shenanigans.

The album’s gorgeous title track, cocooned in warm, pulsing synths, is a bleary-eyed comedown ballad that’s one of the best things Eliot has ever written – an ‘us against the world’ love song, like 1998’s ‘The Underdogs.’

‘Sandpaper Kisses’ is another relationship ballad. It’s about love gone wrong. Eliot sings, “Sandpaper kisses, stinging on your lips. The one you want to hold in your arms is slipping from your grip.”

Eliot juxtaposes the barbed lyric with a charming, nostalgic tune that echoes ’50s instrumental rock and roll duo Santo & Johnny, complete with a great, twangy guitar solo.

The atmospheric and romantic ballad ‘Remembering To Forget’ is so beautiful that Scott Walker could’ve sung it in the ’60s. In the song, Eliot meets a lover in the city and gazes upwards. He then sings: “I know those vapour trails we traced across the sky won’t last forever.“

The second single, the glammy strut of ‘Car That Never Comes’, is another of Eliot’s songs about escaping and driving through the city under the cover of night. It parks alongside ‘The Car That Took My Love Away’, from 2000’s mini-album, Girl On A Train, and ‘Drive’ from Night On Earth.

Co-produced by Eliot and Tam Johnstone, Neon & Ghost Signs was recorded at the latter’s studio in Cornwall. It was mixed by Cenzo Townshend (Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party).

After Rialto broke up, Eliot, who has performed with Grace Jones and collaborated with Danny Goffey (Supergrass), flirted with pastoral sounds on his 2004 solo album, The Long Way Round. Later, he explored rootsy folk music with his band The Embers on Kittow’s Moor (2010). Still, Neon & Ghost Signs sees him firmly back in the city.

Whether it’s trying to stay alive on the dancefloor of a shady nightclub, lying in the gutter, staring at the stars, or staggering home on rain-soaked pavements in the early hours of the morning, Rialto’s third album is a thrilling and emotional journey – a cinematic soundtrack to nocturnal urban life. This is London calling.

Back to Music