Song of the Week w/c 7th April 2025

So, this week ended up with sort of an accidental theme, so I've decided to lean into it. There's two songs I've been totally obsessed with this week, and I realised (rather belatedly...) that they both come from albums called Ghost, which is pretty fun. I realised this while trying to find one of these songs in my Liked Songs playlist, and it turned up a lot of other songs I really like with the word 'ghost' involved in them, so lets do a little review of ghost-themed songs.

Ghost Dance by DBH is one I've been really enjoying this month. It's a gorgeous and evocative song by solo instrumentalist DBH, that really lets the guitar sing in prime position. I'm a massive fan of instrumental music for exactly this reason - it puts them at the centre of the music, not letting lyrics cover up anything. Just pure music and expression. Darkness at the Heart of My Love by Ghost is another one I've been having a lot of fun with recently. As previously discussed I like dramatic & theatrical music etc etc, and this is really the canonical example. Just pure bombastic fun, with a wonderfully tempered power to it, swinging smoothly between acoustic and soft guitar into the dramatic full drums and electric guitar.

Ok, so, I have kind of a funny story for the next one. I've been listening to Neutral Milk Hotel for a really long time, but I'll sound annoying and pretentious if I talk about it too much. Anyway, I love their music, I think their use of instruments is fucking awesome, etc etc. I was already going to put Ghost on this list anyway, but then literally yesterday saw a random Instagram video discussing the fact that the album is heavily influenced by Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank), and in fact that multiple of my favourite songs are pretty clearly completely filled with references to her. Which is really really obvious in hindsight, but somehow I've gone my whole life never realising this. To be fair, it is sort of a hallmark that their lyrics are odd and seem unconnected and so forth, so I guess I just never focused that hard. Egg on my face, oh well.

Alright, I'm going to circle back around to the two original songs that got me onto this track. The first is Winter is Coming by Radical Face (off the album Ghost). It's very hard to explain what I love so much about it - it feels like a whirlwind I get swept up in as it carried me through each phase of the 4 minute song. It's the beginning that's by far the most addictive, that keeps me coming back to listen again. I love the haunting humming, and the way it transfers into that kick drum, driving the song forward. I have no idea what the song is about - and if you want proof that I really never know anything about the musicians I listen to, I've literally in the course of writing this looked up Radical Face for the first time and realised it's the same guy who wrote Welcome Home, Son, which is also gorgeous (if rather overplayed).

Finally - the actual song of the week. I've gone for ghost by mary in the junkyard. I've been finding this track completely addictive. I just love the softly yodelling vocals, their smoothly phantasmic slide over the crunched-up guitars and throbbing drums. It's such a beautiful contrast, especially the way it's then overlayed with spectral rattling, howling, yanking screams in the background, just enough to catch your attention on a re-listen. I like a lot of mary in the junkyard (so, all like 5 songs they have...) but this is definitely my favourite. Every time I finish listening I want to go again to re-experience the whole swirl of it. There is a lot of music out there that is fine, but it is an exciting gem to find someone who is doing stuff that is interesting with music, and that's my focus here, really. Music that goes beyond 3-minute four-chord pop music, that pushes the boundaries in at least one way. Anyway, ghost is that for me. All of the songs from this week are, but this especially. It feels like not just a song, but an experience, and what more could you want?

As you will well know, I like to try and link my song of the week to something that feels thematically relevant to my life right now, and this is of course the case this week because I am feeling fairly miserable and also I've had medium-to-severe vertigo for like a month straight, which really makes you feel like a ghost haunting your own life !!!! Yay !!! Anywayy, yes these are all fun and addictive songs I've been really enjoying and I need to especially give kudos to my friend Juniper for a) writing fantastic fishing-themed fanfiction and b) have a great music taste and introducing me to a good proportion of the songs on this list. See you next week babes xx

(PS Another song they introduced me to that I couldn't shove in because there's no ghost relation is Turkish Delight by The Myterons, which I've also been listening to a lot lately! A really fun song).

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