Former Ghosts – New Love

• 4th Nov 2010

There’s something a bit insubstantial about this latest offering from Former Ghosts. A little intangible. Although exploring love and loss, its delivery feels superficial and cold, and keeps the listener at a distance. Like an emotionally unavailable friend, this is an album that’s obviously miserable but won’t let you hug it.

Freddy Ruppert’s unhappy love life and wavering vocals dominate this second collaborative project with Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart, Nika Roza Danilova (aka Zola Jesus) and newcomer Yasmine Kittles of Tearist.

Initially you feel like you might be onto something good, and the opening tracks of “New Love” are interestingly challenging and awkward. We’re almost literally kept at a distance by the production throughout, being constantly made aware of the vast echoing space between the voices and us.

But an eighties cheesy poppiness slowly begins to pervade the electronica, meaning that rather than haunting or provoking, it seems a bit glib and insincere. By “New Orleans” a few tracks in, the music has lost its dark and clever edge.

Ruppert’s voice starts to pale too. In songs such as “Until You’re Alone Again” or “And When You Kiss Me” it no longer sounds painfully heart-wrenched, but rather weak and warbly. And it’s a shame, but not once on this album do the collaborators sing together in that big, fat layering of voices that worked so well in tracks such as “Hold On” on their first album “Fleur”.

Roza Danilova’s “Chin Up” and “Only in Time” shine in their quieter moments but they’re punctuated by a petulant and demanding synth that detracts from her rather singular voice. They also don’t feel very Zola Jesus-ey – her thumpy drums and sparse arrangements are conspicuously absent. It’s as if she’s just popped in to record a few guest vocals.

It’s the simpler tracks that work. The interlude “Trust” for example. Or the single “Taurean Nature” and final track “New Love” (which marries a light drone with a clunky discordant piano). With their slow monotonous beats and melancholy riffs, there’s just much less going on. Ruppert’s deep voice sounds closer, more immediate and reveals its amber tones. Combined with the bitter lyrics, these songs hit home with a warm intensity.