Radical Face - Ghost

I highly frown upon buying downloadable music. The quality of each song is at most 1/4 of a CD track, there's no booklet, or box, or love. Vinyl is my preferred medium because it contains the entire waveform of the album. Nothing is clipped. CDs on the other hand are (at least modern CDs) very compressed and clipped to sound better with typical headphones and car speakers. It lacks the dynamic range. But hell, sometimes I need something portable without putting in the effort of ripping my own vinyl. I digress...

Radical Face

Ghost

2007

After hearing the song "Welcome Home, Son, " I knew I had to buy this album! Using hand pats and claps instead of a drumset is such a killer idea! While some rhythmic acoustic strums are heard throughout, the moment the chorus drops is goose-bump-inducing. Again and again. The general sound is like Death Cab For Cutie meets Mew, topped off with more ambience than Pink Floyd or Explosions In The Sky could shake a stick at. It's not just that song though, each song introduces an intriguing method of percussion. While some songs do in fact use a drum set, none are limited to just that. I would list them but they are so unique that they are often hard to identify. They just leave you guessing. Theres a general vibe of door creaks, scratchy vinyl sounds, echoing laughter, strings, piano, and believe it or not, accordion!...it just places you in an attic, so vividly! The subtitles of negative and positive space (silence and noise) makes me weak. The focus is drawn in on the lead singer's voice when all of the sudden, the bass drops, like a dubstep song, yet it retains it's completely zen momentum by never putting the bass in the spotlight. It's full of crescendos, decrescendos, staccatos and the like, which leads me to believe Ben Cooper is musically trained.

"If these walls could talk" is the premise of this album. According to Wikipedia each song is a different story. The ones about houses are told from the house's perspective. Each song sounds the same yet not the same. They blend well but it doesn't get boring and you'll hardly notice when the CD jumps back to the beginning to play through once more. This is more of a basking album than a participation album. So don't expect to be singing along much. Instead just take a deep breath and let this dew drop soundscape envelop your being. While this is a basking album, it is not a basking in the sun album. In fact it is not very enjoyable during the day, especially when it's hot out! Once the sun goes down though, it makes for epic night adventure driving music. It just makes you feel good! It pumps you up while calming your nerves. I highly recommend you stop whatever you are doing (after reading this) and buy this album. Posthaste!


Radical Face on Wikipedia
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