Has a few names he works under; as, he creates an album that Download Beyblade Metal Fight Sub Indo The Movie. 's possibly one of the best debut takes on whatever the word Americana is supposed to represent in the 21st century. But instead of dour re-creations of music that even would have rejected, is something that lives up to its name -- a strange, murky presence that sometimes is not entirely there, but in the best, most suggestive way. 's singing is understated but sweetly calming, a gentle glaze that recalls the not-quite-shoegaze of many early-'90s U.S. Acts that rejected grunge and lo-fi for another approach. Meanwhile, the music is equally cool but hardly cold, a carefully detailed combination of instrumentation that lightly references everything from late-'60s to late-'90s in its cinematic scope -- banjos sit well against building drums, strings suddenly appear to add piercing emphasis, and there's a definite hint here and there of 's full-on widescreen production style on songs like 'Glory.' Yet even more strikingly, there's a real joy that suffuses much of the record, as can be heard on the chorus of 'Welcome Home.'
After so much post- 'uplifting' chorale hash infesting NPR-ized rock & roll, the gentle but still exultant beauty here is something special, a blend of vocals, banjo, handclaps and piano that sounds all the better for being a carefully arranged collage. The album's downside is a certain sameness in sound that gets the better of it toward the end -- some songs like 'Along the Road' would almost work better separately than in context as a result -- but is a promising start for 's latest incarnation.
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I first came upon Radical Face though his eleven track The Family Tree: The Bastards, a series of songs that never found their way to formal albums, where he focuses on muted emotional indie folk. If you too came at Ghost in the same fashion then this release might just be a bit disappointing to you though I am in no way saying that it’s not good, simply that it’s not for me. Traktor Tom Download Crtani. The issue for me was that Bastards stood as pure simplistic emotionally driven songs that had not been fleshed out though digital production enhancements, glitchy beats and cut up reassembled instrumentations. Of course, if one compares this outing to his work with More du Electric, these songs do sound a bit more traditional when it comes to songwriting and presentation.
Nevertheless, there is an element of his computer enhancement and structures that sound for all the world far too electronically oriented for my ears, as if there’s some sort of undefined disembodied substance hovering in the background that is undistinguishable, yet ever present, and very noticeable. The real issue is that the album exists within a confined space, sounding interesting on the first listen and then begins to sound disingenuous, lifeless and flat.
For me this happened rather quickly, where I was unable to even get through the album before I realized that it was delivering nothing that I could wrap my arms around, nothing that spoke to me, nothing that reflected any of my considerations. Restricting one’s limited vocal range to the notes one can hit is not a crime, yet as a solo artist, this also restricts his melodic and harmonic range, also limiting the array of notes he’s able to materialize. Another way of saying this is that Ben Cooper has a bland musical vocabulary, and that defines his personality, which in due course defines his songs, sounding disconnected, with the salvation to all of this being that he should not have constructed this to be a solo project. I realize there are many who are going to point to artists such as Leonard Cohen, who also had a limited vocal range, and structured his songs to suit that dynamic, but Cohen did not do something that Cooper does, and that’s the implementation of the computer, which makes all the difference in the world.
“Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen flowed with an emotional ‘analog’ smoothness, something that is not found here. Of course this brings me to much of today’s music that is auto-tuned and tweaked, and truth be told, people have gotten used to that quality, even seeking to emulate it, perhaps even creating an auto-tuned genre but for what Cooper is attempting to do here, it’s just not promising for me, and refuses to allow his music to spark any empathy within me. Yet having said all of this, if the music of Ghost resonates with you, then that’s all that’s all that matters in the end.
Review by Jenell Kesler.