Star Ghost Dog
Here's a fine CD by a very cool Boston indie band. This is
Star Ghost Dog's second CD album and a big leap up from their
first offering "HappyLove". While that was pretty good debut
with some catchy tunes and sly lyrics, it also suffered from
so-so production, some ploddy arrangements, and a seeming lyrical preoccupation
with drunkenness and drugginess. "The Great Indoors" shows
a marked growth in the band's vision. The songs, penned by lead vocalist Ginny
Weaver and band co-founder Brandon Lynch, have great melodic hookiness
and the lyrics shrewdly assess the panoply of human relationships.
The sound--edgy pop-rock with intelligently crafted female vocals--
reminds me of Ivy's first album "Realistic" with a bit more grit.
One difference may be that Ivy's debut was that band's peak (IMHO)
while SGD seems more on the way up.
"My Private War" is Boa's revival of the
feelin of his original Voodoo Club band
using female vocals to balance Boa's deep singing voice,
but without Pia Lunda who split from Boa (and
subsequently released a solo effort Lundaland) some
years ago. To those familiar with the band
that's a pretty big loss, since her voice was the lead
in so many great Voodoo Club songs. The new female
singer (Alison Galea) is more of a background singer
here, but she is very effective.
This CD shows a new maturation of his musical vision.
This is a more laid-back Boa but no less intriguing.
Songs range from raucous rave-ups to wistful romantic
numbers, like "Rome in the Rain" and "Pass Me a Lily",
which are the stand-outs for me.
Fans of Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, or Sting might find
a connection to this CD. Anyone with ears open to the
possibility of oddball musical genius should give this
a try.
One warning: The copy of this CD which I bought from
amazon.com has a programming defect. The total time is
given as 28 seconds, which caused it to be truncated
at that point by all CDROM drives on which I've tried it.
It does, however, play perfectly on every audio CD player
that I have tried. Disappointing, though, that I
can't listen to it through my computer at work. Still
a must-have CD!