The Burning Hell: Ghost Palace (BB*ISLAND)

Canada's The Burning Hell are a sensationally great live band. Over their 20-year career, they have amassed several gig's-worth of fan fave anthems: Fuck the Government I Love You, Amateur Rappers, My Name Is Mathias, Bird Queen of Garbage Island... the list goes on. These purveyors of witty, increasingly funky indie pop couldn't be dull if they tried and there's no drop in standards here.

First thoughts are that BH are really leaning into their status as The Band For The End Of The World. Like its predecessor Garbage Island, Ghost Palace is a (non-pompous) post-apocalypse concept album. This time, our heroes are heading out into space as they leave behind a doomed Earth, but not before they wrestle with what it all meant, hanging out on that beautiful blue / green ball as it boiled and drowned in plastic. In the hands of some, this could be a recipe for grandiosity or lectures, but the 'Hell don't roll like that. Instead, we get big topics tackled through the little details, always with humour, in styles that vary from anthemic indie rock (opener Celebrities in Cemeteries) to loungey grooves (Brazil Nuts and Blue Curacao; Bottle of Chianti, Cheese and Charcuterie Board). Band member Jake Nicolll does a great job producing, while new member Maria Peddle adds violin and vocals. Surrealism, sci-fi futurism, social comment, satire, romance: it's all here - all undershot by a tangible sense of humanity.

Celebrities in Cemeteries opens proceedings at Jim Morrison's grave, highlighting Mathias' love of sometimes sticking WAY TOO MANY WORDS into a line. My Home Planet sees multi-instrumentalist, audience fave and Kom's better half Ariel Sharratt take the mic for a banging garagey number with new wave overtones, illegally catchy with crazy drum fills and sax. "Some people are illegal and some people are allowed on my home planet". Ouch. This would really go off live.

Recent years have seen the band stretch their musical horizons, maybe 'cos they can really play their asses off nowadays. Brazil Nuts and Blue Curacao has a tropical vibe as Mathias shrugs off the end of everything in a soulful low-key way: hey, humanity may be largely destroyed but I've met some really nice new friends. Pour yourself a pina colada and put on your best Hawaiian shirt as you toast the album's key message ("We're better together / We're not meant to be alone...")

Luna FM, the album's second single, sounds lush and expensive - a spacey, slightly proggy killer groove. Mathias is the first-ever DJ in space, playing Deep Purple, Europe and the B-52s to an audience of no-one. There are some great vocal inflections, a cool xylophone riff and the world's most depressing weather forecast ("Just don't ever go outside / It's either freezing or blood-boiling"). What Does It Do and How Does It Work is a witty piece of space-ukulele folk with echoes of the Magnetic Fields. First single Bottle of Chianti, Cheese and Charcuterie Board is catchy as fuck and really funny, joyous in fact. Bleeps, handclaps and a stop-start rhythm adorn a synthetic loungey sound that also incorporates an Eastern raga bit.

Summer Olympics has the balls to start off like Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing. It's the most straight-up romantic tune here ("Good times / Bad wine / Lips buzzing with the humming from the power-lines"). The band's folkier origins get a nod via anthemic violin while we're never far away from a brilliant lyrical idea, courtesy of the world's worst busker "Playing Skynyrd, Sheeran, RHCP". Humanity's slightly weird tendency to invest enormous emotional significance in objects gets another investigation - this lot must have loved Wall-E.

Duck vs Decorated Shed is a blast, a funky guitar/violin hoedown based around a preposterous metaphor. Its message: wear your heart on your sleeve, people! Matthias' love of King of the Road dude Roger Miller - who also smuggled all sort of complicated / depressing ideas into his 'quirky' songs - comes to the forefront here. Birds of Australia is sweet and sad: it's crazy hot but our lovers try to make the best of it. Mathias and Arial take alternate verses before a spiralling piano outro.

There are more birds in Strange Paradise, a laidback groove which sees Arial turn up halfway through with sung/chanted lyrics before ending on a killer sampled line: "Be of good heart / the fight is worth it" The closing title track is a mellow folky number saying sayonara to the whole shooting match ("I'm remembering the place / That won't remember me"). This is how it ends, not with a bang but a sigh. An atonal outro and massed vocals bring a gospel element to the end of everything after "300,000 years". Mathias takes his leave with "Goodbye Ghost Palace / And goodbye cool world..."

The Burning Hell have still got it - and their new focus on the state of the world gives Mathias' lyrics an extra level of poignancy. They are touring the UK sometime in August/September (dates TBC). Go and see 'em, you won't regret it. And if you haven't heard 'em before, lucky you. There's a rich, weird and intriguing back catalogue to get stuck into - the closest comparison may be the great Jeffrey Lewis, who they have shared many a stage with. Enjoy! 4/5