Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I feel like everyone I sit with daily in the five o-clock rush hour traffic jam should be listening to this album; it would sooth the most impatient of beasts.  Ben Cooper of Radical Face has produced a truly amazing new album, in Ghost, with its delicate ambient sounds, light makeshift percussion, and soft whispered lyrics.  I have even become mesmerized by his somewhat strong use of harmonica on many tracks and have found it to be functional and appropriate.   It is clear when you listen to this album that every track contains a sweet calm crestfallen sound that seamlessly ties the album together.

All of the tracks on Ghost open temperate and graceful while they build into a careless yet poignant crescendo.  Still, one of the most exciting things about this album is the found sounds it utilizes; the handclaps, marching, chirping birds, and sounds of children playing.   Not to mention the wind chimes, ringing in Welcome Home which remind me of home too, and the music box sounds are so innocent and dream-like they create this intense intriguing melody.   

The entire range of sounds represented in Ghost are so diverse and highly orchestral, it’s an entirely new genre an experimental indie pop.  Even the vocalizations seem like chanted hymns floating on the soft and breezy air. Another perfect element of this album would have to be Ben’s lyrics which aren’t forced and seem almost naturally composed through the music. In fact, some of the songs would be better with less lyrical content, and I feel as though the basic feelings of Ben’s compositions are accurately expressed entirely in his music alone.        

I must admit that when I first started to listening to Ghost, I wasn’t initially taken with it, but after about the second time around I started to feel this connection to it.  A connection to the evocatively beautiful piano intro on Haunted, the upbeat progression of Winter is Coming, and the faultless flow of Homesick.   Surprisingly, Homesick seems like the rawest track on Ben’s new album, I felt as though while listening to Homesick I experienced his creative process, that the idea sprung into his mind and he just pushed record allowing for ambient environmental noises bleed through in a very genuine way.  

However, by far the strongest presence integrated in to this album is its amazing authorial progression from track to track.  In fact, Ghost, would make a perfect soundtrack to an independent film; I can imagine that this album would have been a perfect substitution for the entire Garden State soundtrack.  The fade out endings of his tracks provide the perfect exit of sound, its like poetry.  Actually, the only possibly negative thing I could even say about Ghost, it about the track, Sleepwalking, it’s the only track that feels as though it doesn’t quite fit as the lyrics feel a bit artificial, but honestly this album rocks!