It’s been more than a decade since Gavin Friday – former front man for The Virgin Prunes – last put out a solo album, but with Ecce Homo he picks up right where he left off 13 years ago.
Friday developed a template of rebelling against the expected and custom norms all the way back to his post-punk group between the late-‘70s through the mid-‘80s, railing against everything from organized religion to gender norms, backed by a brilliant, often abrasive soundtrack of loud guitars, synths and drums. He may have mellowed a bit over the decades, opting for a slightly dreamier, atmospheric sound to back his vocals, but he is still proudly raging against the wrongs in the world. While 2011’s Catholic was focused on the church, Ecco Homo finds Friday just as angry but at a larger range of societal issues, as well as loss and eventually surviving it all.
The opening track, “Lovesubzero” begins with a haunting clarinet and piano setting an ominous tone before morphing into a dance song, building to an electronic peak. “The Church of Love,” one of the strongest songs here, is also anchored by a strong dance vibe and shows the church and it’s repression still looms large in Friday’s experiences; a theme also relevant on “Stations of the Cross,” opening with the chime of church bells. The most impressive moment of the record, however, is “Cabarotica,” an addictively catchy song that flirts heavily with the pop music world.
The record’s origins date back more than 10 years when Friday got an email from Dave Ball (the Soft Cell cofounder and former Virgin Prunes producer) asking if he wanted to collaborate on a cover of Suicide’s “Ghost Rider” for Alan Vega’s 70th birthday. That one cover turned into the duo trading song ideas back and forth and several studio sessions resulting in the two writing the bulk of Ecce Homo’s music. Over the next decade, Friday took care of his ailing mother, watched governments across the world elect one toxic strongman after another, built out the soundtrack to the album with a slew of musicians for a more expansive sound, eventually putting the record on hold for two years during the Covid pandemic. The result is possibly his best solo album to date. A record that is so sprawling it takes several listens to finally soak in but is well worth the effort.
Musically, Friday may have moved further away from the dissonant guitar sound that helped define The Virgin Prunes, but his penchant for theatrical vocals and a tendency to speak out against the world’s wrongs and give a voice to the slighted is still very much at the center of his ethos as a musician. He may be older, but his ability to translate his pain and anger into music has only gotten better.
