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

The Black Ghosts - The Black Ghosts

"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)

The Black Ghosts