This year has been amazing for new music: Death Cab For Cutie, Boy and Bear, The Strokes, The Cold War Kids, Gotye, Iron & Wine, Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Fleet Foxes have already released albums. But that’s only the beginning! Blink-182 make their comeback next month with the Jezabels, Coldplay and Feist still to come after that. But for now I’m content to listen to Eskimo Joe’s ‘Ghosts of the Past‘ over and over and over again.
Ghosts of the Past is an album that I’d characterize as dark, moody rock. I love this! Not only because it sounds good but because it marks a further evolution in the the sound of the band. I’ve talked before about how these guys have developed their sound over time. They have traversed the spectrum of rock; beginning as punk rockers (eg. Ruby Wednesday and Sweater) moving through more general styles of rock (eg. Head Hurts and Wake Up) through to what I would call more thoughtful rock (eg. Black Fingernails Red Wine). In their previous album Inshalla, they tried more of a 1990′s pop-rock sound, I wasn’t really a fan but still it was good to see their style continuing to evolve.
What have I been listening to for the last week? Eskimo Joe.
Now they have transitioned into a driving, moody and angsty style of rock. It’s more of a fundamental rock album, being more guitar driven than anything else. I like guitar driven albums, I grew up with it and now that music tends to be developed with and around synth, its something I sometimes miss. But it doesn’t stop there, the album is made exponentially better by what I’d describe modestly as ‘appropriate’ and unashamedly as ‘Brilliantepicawesome’ piano. This is demonstrated perfectly in one of my favourite parts of the album; the mid-song instrumental in ‘Itch‘. The driving rhythmic piano is perfectly complimented by melodious guitar, both working together to build the song into that kind of intense moody rock we heard in Black Fingernails. They have also incorporated that 90′s ‘arena rock’ drumming style that was used throughout Inshalla, at first I was skeptical but it grew on me, massively.
Anyway, here is a clip of Itch, hope you likes it!
