Customer Reviews

Answers

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I felt it was necessary to review this because the only review so far posted is so misleading. To say this album doesn't contain hooks or melodies is grossly inaccurate. If you are interesting in reading about some of the best pop/alternative music being written today, read on...

To begin with, the album is as one might expect, more mature than the previous debut album Grow up or Sleep In (and that was indeed a very solid album). It's just that Answers is just thicker, warmer, smarter and more well-rounded. Connor's lyrics are darker here, yet they don't drag you down. From a lyrical standpoint, the album sharp, witty, humorous and diverse. Everything else has improved too - Andrew's voice, the drums, the layers of guitars and more confident sounding keyboard playing. But what I'm here to discuss is the music.

Ghosty's album is not one you can listen to once and judge it. But it doesn't take long for the music to sink in either. The first four tracks are thunderously good - these songs alone make the album worth buying. "Dumbo" is probably the most traditional pop track on the album, and is the perfect lead-off song. But then the album gets to the point with the very catchy "You are a Big Screen." This track was good enough for grab the attention of Apple computers, so you don't have to take my word for it. Big Screen just sticks in your head like super glue. "Junior grows up" and "A Man with Answers" continue off the energy of Big Screen, showing off the groups refreshing ability to combine beautiful melodies with constantly unexpected subtle harmonic shifts. This is where Ghosty have shown the most improvement - their harmonic language. The songs throw in a lot of unexpected resolutions and surprise harmonic progressions. In other words, Ghosty does not cram too many ideas into one song - they simply know how to vary them each repetition without them getting repetitive. The melodies are also more unique here than Grow up... in that they also take a lot of subtle turns. But the point here is that it all WORKS. This is the difference between a good band and a great one. Great ones figure out ways to do eccentric things while keeping it accessible to the listener. None of the music sounds forced. The other standout tracks are "Make it Easier" which is a slower, softer song. "Underground Factory" is a delicious chromatic experiment with a long outro similar to that of Hey Jude, although not overlong like the Beatles. Ghosty then saves the best song towards the end in "I tried" - a song about failure but not forgetting our dreams. Musically this song is just gorgeous. The imperfect ending to the song is perfect because of the meaning of the song.

There isn't a bad song here, but there are a few that are slightly less charming musically. I don't give albums 5 stars unless they are flawless, but this one certainly deserves 4 to 4 and 1/2. The only other minor weakness I can see is that the band might consider varying their instrumental textures a little more. But perhaps this is just their style. Ghosty is one of those bands for people that have an appreciation for carefully crafted pop music. For those getting discouraged about finding quality eccentric, complex and tuneful pop, Ghosty might have that answer.

There's nothing wrong with this if you really want to hear the Lovin' Spoonfulls transmuted through XTC to century 21 by way of Helium, but if you're going to do something like this, you have to be able to write hooks, and Andrew Connor falls well short. "Big Screen" is a great example, a real pleasant little groove, but there's like four melodies crammed into the song, and none of them work. And the instrumental work doesn't sound connected to the theme either, it's like it wobbled out of the groove somewhere. "Dumbo" is much better, but even there the connections between melodies is too rushed, he switches gears too fast, in the middle of lines. "Easier" is a nice little song, stealing a Todd Rundgren change, but it also fails in the end to be anything other than just there. "Customer" tries for more of a power ballad feel, but the vocal passages just totally miss, you just want to grab him and tell him not to sing THAT note, sing the obvious progression for heaven's sake, you're hurting my ears.

Sorry, but if you have no compelling new sound to present and you can't write very well . . . forget about it, you can't learn that. PS, I started this giving it 3 stars because it's pleasant enough, but the more I thought about it, it only deserves 2. But you can't edit that.