Ghosts Upon the Earth

Gungor (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 20, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Brash Music
• ASIN: B005DZMQA4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,985 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #30 in Music > Gospel

Editorial Reviews

Ghosts Upon The Earth, the 2011 release from GRAMMY ® nominated group Gungor, was produced by the band's namesake, Michael Gungor. This follow-up to the critically acclaimed Beautiful Things project was composed as a full narrative celebrating the beauty of existence and bemoaning its darkness and frailty.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Cinematic September 21, 2011

By Chris Moesel

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

Buy this album, lock yourself in a room, turn down the lights, and turn up the volume. Allow yourself to be immersed. This music will evoke pictures, memories, dreams... It is cinema.

This is not "Beautiful Things Part 2", but it does seem a natural progression for the band. It contains complex beat patterns, unique blends of instrumentation, beautiful harmonies, and authentically honest lyrics. There is certainly plenty of diversity among the songs, and yet the album has a one-ness to it.

I'm encouraged to see another example of Christians creating original, artistic, quality music. Despite it's overtly Christian themes, Gungor's authentic approach manages to avoid being preachy. It feels like we are eavesdropping on Gungor as they serenade their Savior. In essence, this is an album of love songs-- it was not written for us... Perhaps *this* is exactly why "Ghosts Upon the Earth" is so good.

Whatever your theological persuasions may or may not be, if you are a part of the human epic (hint: you are), I highly recommend this album.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Intricately artistic and wonderfully cohesive September 27, 2011

By JoeAZ92

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

After a release as successful and simply excellent as last year's Beautiful Things, I knew Gungor was going to have a hard time topping it with their next offering, which was to come a mere year and a half later. As Michael Gungor said in his post about the new album, "there was a temptation to take the safe route on this album and try to make a `Beautiful Things-2.' We knew people liked it, and the easy plan would be to try to do it again. That's not what we did." There is more truth to that statement than you might believe: Ghosts Upon the Earth isn't a "Beautiful Things 2' by any stretch of the imagination. It's something almost entirely different, and whether that is a good or bad thing I suppose depends on how the listener chooses to listen to it. There's no denying that Ghosts Upon the Earth is full of artistically stunning music and a powerful, cohesive story; I think it will really just depend on what the listener makes of it. This listener, at least, is thoroughly impressed with the record; and here's why:

Ghosts begins its artistic narrative with the Beginning in the epic opening track "Let There Be." Lisa Gungor's stunning vocals lead an awe-inspiring crescendo that musically feels a lot like you might imagine that moment where God said, "Let there be light," would have been like. The wonderfully deep and upbeat worship tune "Brother Moon" follows with a sense that the brand new Creation is worshiping its glorious Creator with lyrics like, "You're glorious, You're holding us together." "Crags and Clay" also captures a true sense of awe-inspired worship, only with a quieter sound than "Brother Moon." The quiet, captivating "The Fall" effectively brings in the album's idea of men being "like ghosts upon the earth," while "When Death Dies" follows with hope of eventual redemption (perhaps representing God's promise of a Savior after the fall in Genesis 3?) with a unique mix of a Latin guitar and a driving bass and drum groove.

At this point, you've already heard a pretty phenomenal set of songs, but Ghosts isn't even halfway over yet. Some of the album's strongest tracks are saved for last, especially from "Ezekiel" to the end. "Ezekiel" is practically heartbreaking as it describes the way Christ loves His Bride (the Church) despite her unfaithfulness, but the beautiful "Vous Etes Mon Coure (You Are My Heart)" comes immediately after as a gorgeous love song between Christ and a redeemed, repentant Bride who again adores her Husband ("When You first regarded me / Your eyes filled me with grace / Thereby again my eyes / Merited to adore You"). The proper response to such a great love is wonderfully displayed in the three closing tracks beginning with the grandly triumphant "This Is Not the End" and continuing in all-out worship through the delightfully bluegrassy "You Are the Beauty" and the beautiful sense of surrender in "Every Breath."

The album's two middle tracks, "Church Bells" and "Wake Up Sleeper," are quite good, too, but they don't fit in with the rest quite as well, which makes them a bit weaker. Still, "Church Bells" has solid lyrics and a light, fun mood while "Wake Up Sleeper" is effectively dark and strong musically with lyrics that recall some of Jesus' harsher words He spoke to the religious leaders in Israel at the time.

What makes Ghosts Upon the Earth so strong, though, is a combination of two particular characteristics, starting with the incredibly intricate artistry that composes every single song. The very structure of the songs is unusual in many ways, whether it's cutting a final chorus in favor of a lengthy and simply awesome outro ("Brother Moon"), utilizing some offbeat-feeling time signatures ("Crags and Clay," "Wake Up Sleeper"), or simply using three big, grand verses without a chorus to tie them together ("This Is Not the End"). Gungor's choice of instrumentation is also incredibly unique; you won't even hear an electric guitar on Ghosts, but instead there are plenty of strings, banjos, flutes, an oboe, and a wide array of other instruments you wouldn't normally expect to hear on a modern worship album. Also, everything on this record musically is intentional in the way it paints a picture to go along with the music, which makes every track incredibly effective musically and lyrically.

The second major strong point for Ghosts is definitely in the overarching story that makes it cohesive and unified. Seriously, this is an album you have to listen to, preferably with headphones on and the lights off. In order to fully appreciate any of these songs individually, you must understand how each one fits into the album's story; no song is fully complete without the context of the songs next to it in the tracklisting. For example, "When Death Dies" is fantastic by itself, but a lot of power is added to it when you understand that it's a promise of redemption after "The Fall" desperately asks, "How long 'till you save us all?" Also, the final five tracks are practically inseparable; that's not to say that you can't enjoy them individually, but for instance, you have to know what happens in "Ezekiel" to fully appreciate the beautiful love song that follows it, "Vous Etes Mon Coure (You Are My Heart)," and you have to understand the concepts of those songs to really understand why "This Is Not the End" is so incredibly and epically victorious. Ghosts Upon the Earth, unlike most other music released today, is an `album' in the truest sense of the word in that it really needs to be listened to from start to finish, and that unity makes it incredibly strong.

So really, at the end of it all, when "Every Breath" finally fades out, all you can really say is, "Wow." Ghosts Upon the Earth might not be perfect; in fact, it's hard to say whether it's really better or worse than Beautiful Things; but comparisons aside, the incredible intricacy of the music makes it excellently artistic and the cohesiveness of the overarching story weaves the whole thing together beautifully. That said, this is what you should do right about now: buy Ghosts Upon the Earth, really listen to it next time you have about 50 minutes to spare, and through your listening to it, let your heart worship the Lord for the glorious, wonderful, worthy God He has been, is, and always will be, and for everything He has done for His Bride even in her unfaithfulness. Excellent work, Gungor, you have truly crafted the work of art that you wanted to create with Ghosts Upon the Earth. Thank you for being bold enough to be outstandingly creative and do something different to sing fresh and new songs to our wonderful Lord.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My Pick for Album of the Year September 23, 2011

By semindn

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a musician and singer-songwriter (hobbyist), I'm super picky about my music. I usually criticize about 95% of the music so much that it annoys people I am close to. However, Gungor is definitely different. In terms of 'Christian' affiliated music, this band has no equal in my opinion. There is so much depth and variety in the music and lyrics, yet at the same time, there's a simplicity there. This album is hands down my favorite album of the year. When you listen to it, listen to it all at once if you can and it's a beautiful tapestry of glimmers of angst and hope all meshing into a 'post liturgical' symphony of awesome.

Buy it!