"The repetition kills you, so bring it on, bring it on." The Black Ghosts sing this line over and over on the track aptly titled, "Repetition". This sentiment pretty much sums up the entire album, The Black Ghosts, unfortunately.The opening track, "Anyway You Choose To Give It", is a glorious bit of synth-disco. Smartly done lyrics, a catchy beat and that oh-so popular electro sound. I'm sure it's going to be a smash on the dance floor.
From there on, however, the entire album vacillates between bland mediocrity and nails-on-the-chalkboard irritating. There are basically three main influences in each of the tracks: 80s Duran Duran, 80s synthpop and 80s top 40 RnB. But rather than coming up with a fresh sound, every one of these tracks sounds like something El DeBarge left on the studio floor. It's cheesy in all the wrong places (I swear that's an actual Casio they're trying to play off non-ironically in "Repetition"), seems to lack any direction or gravitas, and often gets sickeningly repetitive ("You've got to face the music, face the music, face the music, face the music" gets chanted about a hundred more times on "Face").
What the entire thing sounds like is a band that never actually listened to anything from the 80s, but instead listened to '00 revival bands and tried to guess what music from the actual decade sounded like. The Black Ghosts want desperately to get into the niche that Cut Copy have carved for themselves. Instead, they've just highlighted why Cut Copy have it right. Cut Copy understand the elements they are ..well, copying from. But they have the right mix of new and old and their song writing is tight, hook filled and catchy. The Black Ghosts got it right with the first track and then just fell flat on their faces.
On the bright side, this duo comprised from fellas from The Wiseguys and Simian might be able to save themselves with a set of remixes. I haven't listened to them yet, and I'll be reviewing these separately. But maybe, just maybe, they won't completely suck.
MP3: The Black Ghosts - Anyway You Chose To Give It
Purchase through Amazon - The Black Ghosts (released July 8, 2008)
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