Ghost Music - I Was Hoping You’d Pass By Here

  by Dastardly

published: 26 / 3 / 2018

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Review

Somewhere onboard the Ghost Music time machine a phone is ringing... “Hello” “Hello, is that Ghost Music ?” “Yes, who’s this?” “It’s er, Xang from Changzhou Electronics on earth. I was just ringing to let you know we have the new modulator for your vehicle and...” “Fantastic!” “Yes and we’ll be sending it up to you tomorrow. There’s um, one small problem though.” “Uh huh!” “Unfortunately with this modulator you won’t be able to land back in 1993... However we can get you pretty close.” “OK, how close?” “Well it’s ahem, 2018...but there’s some good news - we just did a check on the music for that year and a device called ‘the internet’ has broken down a lot of the old music shaping channels and there’s any number of micro scenes bubbling away on the surface...In fact the early 1990s are enjoying a popular resurgence so this could be a good time to return. Anyway I’ll mail the part tomorrow. Good luck!" So Southend’s Ghost Music return to earth armed with thirteen songs from somewhere deep in the cosmos. ‘Home Dog’ sets the tone and coasts in on a pretty 1950's guitar conjuring up old bank holiday newsreel footage of seaside fairgrounds and diving board beauty contests. ‘Heart Shaped Holiday’ is so full of yearning that Tinderstick’s ‘Marbles’ and Yo La Tengo’s ‘Autumn Sweater’ have both popped round to take a look. Then ‘Strange Love’ starts. Wow, I’m hoping there are lots of people falling in love right now and hearing this song - and even if you’re not you can steal a glimpse of what it felt like. A bottle full of butterflies. While your head’s still spinning there are echoes of David Baker-era Mercury Rev on ‘This Kingdom Come’ with wonky sounds leaning out from the corners before ‘Blind Spot’ charms with a simplistic 90's infused jangle. It’s not all about the sounds though, ‘The Queen of England’ takes you straight into the kitchen at this particular party and leaves you with the most memorable lyric on the album - "You’ve turned into a hippy and there’s nothing worse than that." There’s a nod back to the Velvets via Luna on ‘Gurl in a Whirl’ then soon after we’re back at the beginning as the Southend seafront reappears on ‘I’m No Fucking Messenger’. ‘I Was Hoping You’d Pass By Here’ is a masterclass in understatement and producer John Hannon has perfected the illusion of a band sounding like they’re barely touching their instruments yet still filling up the room.

Track Listing:-

1 Home Dog
2 Heart Shaped Holiday
3 Strange Love
4 We Could Get Along
5 This Kingdom One
6 Blindspot
7 Let's Meet
8 Queen of England
9 Gurl in a Whirl
10 Blackbird Stars
11 Close Your Eyes
12 My Cloud
13 I'm No F**king Messenger