Black Ghosts - Remixes and B-Sides

I always feel bad when I have to give an album a bad review. Call me a softy, but since I'm often getting music from labels who are out there working hard to promote their band, it's difficult to turn around and tell them that something sucks.

I had to do that last week when I reviewed the Black Ghosts debut album. The fantastic folks over at Musebox were totally cool with it though. They've also given me a set of remixes and b-sides to review from the Ghosts. They're really good people over there at Musebox.

Sigh.

There's a remix from BG of The Gossip's "Listen" . There are two remixes of "Face"(the Teenagers Mix, and the Switch Mix), two remixes of "Anyway You Choose To Give It"(Boy 8 Bit Mix and Fake Blood Mix)and one of "Some Way Through This"(The Replicants Mix)all from the debut album, as well as a cover from the Ghosts of Olivia Newton Johns' "Let's Get Physical".

The Ghosts remix of "Listen" is passable. Nothing too exciting here, but a decent dance floor version of the track. If you like the Gossip, then you probably won't mind this remix.

The remixes from Black Ghosts range from 'not as irritating as the original' to 'Jesus, please make it stop'. Part of the problem is that the original material is not much to work (as I said in my original review). The Boy 8 Bit Mix of "Anyway" is actually a good dancey electro piece of work that goes well with the original, but the Fake Blood Mix is so glitched and re-sampled it sounds like an epileptic on two turntables. The Teenagers failed to strip out the annoying repetitions in "Face". On "Some Way Through This" Simon Lord's vocals are so awful it's painful. I don't think I realized until I listened to this track just how strained and limited his voice is. He spends an amazing amount of time sounding off key.

The capper here though is the cover. From across my house, my girlfriend piped up "Oh my god, is that someone covering Olivia Newton John?", when she heard "Let's Get Physical" coming from my laptop.

It's funny. In my previous review, I accused the Black Ghosts of trying to sound like the 80s without having listened to the 80s. This track hammers that point home. Taking one of the most slapstick disco pieces from the 80s and covering it without any sense of irony or humor is just sad. John's original track was fun, light, and done with a wink. Trying to make this into some dark, modern piece just sounds wretched. If it weren't "Let's Get Physical", it would be a decent little dance tune, but it is. Listen at your own peril.

MP3: Black Ghosts - Let's Get Physical
Purchase through Amazon - Black Ghosts
Black Ghosts