: Yesterday and the Day Before
: Roam Like Ghosts
Overall Grade/Rating: 7.8/10
Production: 8/10
Lyrics: 8/10
Melody: 9/10
Execution: 7/10
Subject Matter: 8/10
Replay Value: 8/10
Originality: 7/10
Fav songs: Smile, See You Again, Heaven۪s Light, Ballad of a Friend
Least fav songs: Go On
Critique: Roam Like Ghosts make a bold statement with their debut, yesterday and the Day Before, by going against the current of today۪s hip-pop wave. The laid back, post-Nirvanian ,raw acoustic effort comes on the heels of one music۪s watershed moments when hip hop was declared as the most popular genre.
In the midst of this development, the Ghosts stay head strong and true to the tradition of the acoustic guitar. After the long hay ride vibe of When the Wind Blew, the opening track, things pick up with the 90۪s echoing Smile. The mantle piece single is the perfect spell to conjure up the post-grunge zombie.
Traces of Counting crows surfaces at points during Smile. These kinds of aesthetics definitely will have an appeal for those who long to relive the days of MTV, The Craft, and Ren & Stimpy. However, there has to be more for the album to stick and there is.
Lyrics are an important part of the experience for duo Mathew Daugherty and Bucky Fairfax. In the same spirit as Bob Dylan and Kenny Rogers, Ghosts don۪t waste a bar when it comes to giving listeners words to ponder.
On Ballad of Friend Matt tales the tale of a long lost friend among roaming ghosts. Go On and Take It on the Chin follow in the same vein. The latter two are tales about the downside of relationships.
The Quiet is yet another engaging tale and one of the best composed tracks on the album. There are points where the acoustic chords become redundant, which displays a slight lack of creativity. None of this takes away from the Ghost۪s musicianship that۪s evident. When listeners come across One Thing, for instance, and Smile the only difference between the composition is the minor chord thrown in on Smile.
As with all art, the interpretation lies in the ears, in this case, of the beholder. The simplistic redundancy has an appeal going back to the very EARLY days of American music (Woody Guthrie).
There is room for perhaps a stronger bass guitar and more alternate chords implemented into the band۪s repertoire. Tracks like If Walls Could Talk has some of the best lyrics on the album with the hook two people can share something but it doesn۪t mean that they belong..., but by this point in the album Matt۪s vocal inflections start to sound like Weird Al making an attempt to cut a folk album.
Heaven۪s Light saves the moment with its chords that take step outside of what everything sounded like up until this point. Honestly, 10 tracks is a bit too much for a debut in this generation. A shorter album that includes Smile, Heaven۪s Light, and Ballad of a Friend would have been ideal. See You Again wraps up the album, very heartfelt lyrics, and the hard post-grunge vibe that set off the journey.
