now this is what we call haunted volume I

Everything Is Low-The Go Find

The Go Find's second record, Stars On The Wall, was a bit of a letdown on the first listen. I just didn't find it as immediate. The songs off his first disc, Miami, were understated and austeer, yet very catchy at the same time (and all minor key and heartbreakingly romantic in many spots, most notably on "What I Want"). On my first listen through Stars, I have to confess, I was a bit disappointed. I think it was an expectation thing...I basically a sequel to Miami.

After many listens though, the charms of Stars On The Wall have been revealed. The record is quieter, more acoustic, and for me, sadder. This, "Everything Is Low", is my favorite track on the record. The Go Find vocalist, Dieter Sermeus (who sings with the band Orange Black, this is a side project), doesn't have a huge range vocally, but he does a lot with a little.
Its a sad sad song...the part that gets me...when he sings...

Would you break me up
Would you let me know
If I try to run
Send a car across
What a wreck I am
Your eyes
Would you let me out

I'd start with Miami, however. Its a beautiful insular lonely record. The moment...for me, far away, is on the aforementioned "What I Want." It's a love song...the narrator is simply telling someone how much he cares for them, how much he loves him/her. And on the chorus he then says, "...it's what you want....too....I can tell." Its almost as if he is talking someone into getting back together, talking them into admitting they love him.

And the song kinda stays there for the first 2 1/2 minutes....and then, it just simply lifts up and he starts singing "I can tell, too much is never enough, when it comes up to you" and the music swells and and...well, you'll fall too...its a heart-melting moment.

Anyway-Tulipomania

The first time I heard this band it was on a Wire compilation from last year ("Same Ole Song" I believe). They definitely stuck out (first of all, they were melodic...I love Wire magazine but its a little pretentious at times and I've heard stuff they adore that sounds like a hair dryer being dropped down the stairs. Merzbow, you know who you are). Whatever the case, it was a very cool song...definitely made me want to hear more...somewhat of a Cure-like feel to the beat, funky and danceable. And the vocals, well, they stuck out then...I can't remember what I wrote about them last year but anyways, this song...

When I was a kid, my favorite Disney ride, far and away, was Haunted Mansion. I remember being entranced by its beauty and begged to go on it again and again. Actually, its still my favorite ride hands down. One of my favorite scenes was the ballroom scene, where all these ghosts are flitting in and out of view and off and on the dance floor. I believe there's music playing during the scene, but for the life of me, I can't remember what the song is.

This should be the song. Talk about haunted. A dance party for the ghosts of lost loves, if you will. The music is somewhat driving, somewhat dirgelike, taking all the best parts of the Cocteau Twins and Ride without sounding derivative (the backbeat actually reminds me of a song by a kinda unknown shoegaze band Chapterhouse and their lone hit "Pearl"). So thats all good.

Going back to the haunted house analogy, there's a scene on the ride where a female ghost is standing in a lonely room a bridal gown with her red heart beating. There's also a scene where a disembodied head is speaking from inside a crystal ball. (I'm really loading up on the analogies here, no?). Anyways, the female vocals sound like they are being sung from the head in the crystal ball. They flit in and out off the song, just like those dancing ghosts (are you with me still ?)

And those male vocals? Yup, the ghost bride with the bleeding red beating heart, she'd be singing them. And yes, that's a huge compliment. To say that Tom Murray's vocals are distinctive would be an understatement. If Anthony of Anthony & the Johnsons and Liz Fraser of the Cocteau Twins had a child and signed it up for vocal lessons with the ghost of Jeff Buckley, he would sound like this. Unlike those influences however, the vocals are more contained within the song...the seem to move with the narrative and though distinctive, are almost instrumentation. Wraith-like, eerie and stunningly beautiful...his voice is a voice that probably divides a room. I'll go on the haunted ride again...y'all can go ahead and ride the ultra annoying Space Mountain ride.