The Ghosts : Blue Birds Blood

<a href="Reviews/Album_Reviews/The_Ghosts_%3A_Blue_Birds_Blood/"><img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/theghostsbluebirdsblood.jpg" alt=" " /></a> The voice behind The Ghosts, and who often gets his name in front of the band's, is Matthew Sawyer.  His vocals are so...
6.7 Catbird
2007 

 The voice behind The Ghosts, and who often gets his name in front of the band’s, is Matthew Sawyer.  His vocals are so thickly British that they take you back to Davy Jones and The Monkees.   The Ghosts’ new album, Blue Birds Blood, is full of gentle lullabies, calm acoustic serenades, and occasional pop ballads that you might think they were related.  The relaxation in Sawyer’s voice induces a level of wholesomeness and charm that makes each of these songs feel like they’re from an era long gone. 

Blue Birds Blood is a lo-fi collection of semi-sweet, melancholy hymns from the ’60s pop scene.  The opener, "Penny Falls", is a gentle plucking bolstered by high organ and Sawyer’s rolling voice.  "Looking Right Back At Me" has a head-bobbing rhythm that recalls the mop-top days.  "Love Will Come To Town" has a distanced ukulele, conjuring some far off hope.  The tempos and strains throughout the album never get above a cooled pace, which keeps its together the whole way through.

Restraint, the British way, is the recurring theme of the album.  Even "Heartbreaker", with its shouting and barrelling strumming, crashes down into somber reflection.  "Go Out On The Streets", which starts with a familiar tom and a strong bass line gives into grasped clapping and dark harmonies.  "Paris In The Spring" and "When Death Walks In" are impossibly frail acoustic tracks.

Through Blue Birds Blood, Sawyer comes across as one of those guys you’d let take your daughter out.  His lyrics are honest and unassuming.  His voice is genuinely smooth and lilting.  He recalls the "innocent" pop star of a generation ago, before the unchecked dissolution of civility.  In this way, Blue Birds Blood is an enjoyable, soothing blast to the past.

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