General Ratings:
Music: 7
Lyrics: 6
Scope: 5
Consistency: 7
RIYL: Sparklehorse, The Microphones, recent Sigur Rós
Further Listening: Electric President, Castanets, Okay
Place of Origin: Jacksonville, FL
Instrument/Sounds List: Acoustic & electric guitar, piano (prepared & plucked), multi-tracked vocals, alternative percussion (hand claps & foot stomps), ambient sounds, synthesizer/keyboard, banjo, accordion, chimes, vibraphone, violin, harmonium, bass, whistling, effects/tape manipulation.
Mood Tones:
Season: Winter
Weather: Windy
Time of Day: Night
Song Highlights: Welcome Home Son, Glory, Homesick
Favorite Lyrics:
"I sank into the sea/
Wrapped in piano strings./
Few words could open me,/
But you knew them all." (from Wrapped in Piano Strings)
"If blood is thicker than water/
Then let the river in,/
We might drift away,/
But we've got thick skin." (from Let the River In)
"You wear the moon like a halo/
You wear the night like it's your coat." (from Haunted)
Other Thoughts:
Ben Cooper sure likes to keep himself busy. Besides being all aspects of Radical Face, he is 1/2 of the bands Electric President, Iron Orchestra, Mother's Basement & Clone (although only the first 2 have released proper albums). He also appears to be a proficient graphic designer, as all of these groups have well-designed if sporadically-maintained websites (accessible from the main Radical Face page that you can get to by clicking the post title). With such an eye for aesthtics and attention to detail, it should come as no surprise how deeply you can delve into Ghost on repeat listens.
A word about production and its interplay with theme. According to a secondhand source, Ghost is a concept album about spending a year living inside a haunted house. While there's nothing explicitly linking the songs together (other than the eerie mood that nearly all of them evoke), once the idea has been put in your ear, it becomes difficult not to hear it everywhere. He samples field recordings quite liberally and I'm pressed to think of any song on the album that doesn't see the benefit of found sounds. Floorboards creak, children laugh, wind chimes sway; each one an effective atmospheric, if not particularly original. What is original is the way he manipulates his recordings of prepared piano and pairs the manipulations with high-pitched string synthesizers to give the music a dream-like, almost aquatic tone, often mirrored by the presence of bodies of water in the lyrics (c.f Let the River In, Along the Road). Also, the almost entirely corporeal percussion on this album, cutting in and out for punctuation, draws attention to a hollow quality in the production that really sells the conceit nicely.
The Downside:
Mr. Cooper's voice is a high tenor and rather nasal, much in keeping with a trend in indie folk music (e.g. Ray Raposa, Phil Elv(e)rum, John Darnielle, etc.), but perhaps a deal breaker if that sort of thing bothers you. Depending on how the idea of concept albums in general and one whose subject is a haunted house in specific hit you, the near uniformity of mood and subject matter may make this a love-it-or-hate-it kind of an album. The lyrics, while mostly pretty good, don't have many hard lines and seem to find their purpose mostly in reflecting the content of the music. To a less-charitable listener, this may seem ephemeral. But before anyone judges this record too harshly, my suggestion would be to put it on, turn out the lights, wrap yourself up in a blanket and see where it doesn't take you.
Music: 7
Lyrics: 6
Scope: 5
Consistency: 7
RIYL: Sparklehorse, The Microphones, recent Sigur Rós
Further Listening: Electric President, Castanets, Okay
Place of Origin: Jacksonville, FL
Instrument/Sounds List: Acoustic & electric guitar, piano (prepared & plucked), multi-tracked vocals, alternative percussion (hand claps & foot stomps), ambient sounds, synthesizer/keyboard, banjo, accordion, chimes, vibraphone, violin, harmonium, bass, whistling, effects/tape manipulation.
Mood Tones:
Season: Winter
Weather: Windy
Time of Day: Night
Song Highlights: Welcome Home Son, Glory, Homesick
Favorite Lyrics:
"I sank into the sea/
Wrapped in piano strings./
Few words could open me,/
But you knew them all." (from Wrapped in Piano Strings)
"If blood is thicker than water/
Then let the river in,/
We might drift away,/
But we've got thick skin." (from Let the River In)
"You wear the moon like a halo/
You wear the night like it's your coat." (from Haunted)
Other Thoughts:
Ben Cooper sure likes to keep himself busy. Besides being all aspects of Radical Face, he is 1/2 of the bands Electric President, Iron Orchestra, Mother's Basement & Clone (although only the first 2 have released proper albums). He also appears to be a proficient graphic designer, as all of these groups have well-designed if sporadically-maintained websites (accessible from the main Radical Face page that you can get to by clicking the post title). With such an eye for aesthtics and attention to detail, it should come as no surprise how deeply you can delve into Ghost on repeat listens.
A word about production and its interplay with theme. According to a secondhand source, Ghost is a concept album about spending a year living inside a haunted house. While there's nothing explicitly linking the songs together (other than the eerie mood that nearly all of them evoke), once the idea has been put in your ear, it becomes difficult not to hear it everywhere. He samples field recordings quite liberally and I'm pressed to think of any song on the album that doesn't see the benefit of found sounds. Floorboards creak, children laugh, wind chimes sway; each one an effective atmospheric, if not particularly original. What is original is the way he manipulates his recordings of prepared piano and pairs the manipulations with high-pitched string synthesizers to give the music a dream-like, almost aquatic tone, often mirrored by the presence of bodies of water in the lyrics (c.f Let the River In, Along the Road). Also, the almost entirely corporeal percussion on this album, cutting in and out for punctuation, draws attention to a hollow quality in the production that really sells the conceit nicely.
The Downside:
Mr. Cooper's voice is a high tenor and rather nasal, much in keeping with a trend in indie folk music (e.g. Ray Raposa, Phil Elv(e)rum, John Darnielle, etc.), but perhaps a deal breaker if that sort of thing bothers you. Depending on how the idea of concept albums in general and one whose subject is a haunted house in specific hit you, the near uniformity of mood and subject matter may make this a love-it-or-hate-it kind of an album. The lyrics, while mostly pretty good, don't have many hard lines and seem to find their purpose mostly in reflecting the content of the music. To a less-charitable listener, this may seem ephemeral. But before anyone judges this record too harshly, my suggestion would be to put it on, turn out the lights, wrap yourself up in a blanket and see where it doesn't take you.
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