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Track Listings
| 1. Count Me Out |
| 2. Mr McGee |
| 3. Swing |
| 4. Everything Up [Zizou] |
| 5. Pop Art Blue |
| 6. Medicine Man |
| 7. Ghost sYMbOL |
| 8. Sleeper |
| 9. Solastalgia |
| 10. The Road |
| 11. All Of Us |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Over the last ten years, Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker (aka Zero 7) have amassed a decent reputation as one of the 90’s key ‘post-rave’ electronica outfits. Their debut album Simple Things, was one of the most uplifting and coherent downtempo documents of the era, up there with classics by Massive Attack, Air and Nightmares On Wax. Subsequent albums When It Falls and The Garden have been good, if less consistent. Their latest offering, Yeah Ghost, is their patchiest yet, zigzagging carelessly through experimental electronica, meandering acoustic folk ("Pop Art Blue", "Swing") and upbeat tracks like the Basement Jaxx-esque "Mr McGee" and "Medicine Man" (both featuring London vocalist Eska). While there are undeniably some good songs here, many of them featuring the golden Zero 7 sound, others such as recent single "Everything Up (Zizou)"--which features Binns on vocals--feel sub-standard, especially lyrically, and the more outré moments ("Count Me Out", "Solastalgia", "Ghost sYMbOL", often feel jarring rather than interesting or exploratory. While it’s doubtless good for bands to step out of their comfort zones, it’s generally better if they can do it with a little more grace and vision. --Danny McKenna
Review
Zero 7's fourth album, despite containing a fair smattering of Ovaltine for the ears, marks a distinct change. Yeah Ghost is a schizophrenic offering that draws heavily on pop and rhythm, stuffed with all the right shapes but crucially lacking the vision that held Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker's post-clubbing world together back in the day.
As a mission statement, second track Mr Mcgee is pretty startling: it comes across more like a Basement Jaxx stomper, with vocalist Eska Mtungwazi contributing to its infectious call-and-response structure. But then it's on to the drifting, lilting Swing, with multi-tracked harmonies that wouldn't seem out of place on an early Air track. Having two disparate styles roughly placed together, though, signals a crisis of identity rather than a master plan.
The duo's sound engineer roots come through on their sonically adventurous moments. There's plenty here to get smokers frowning, such as instrumental tidbits Count Me Out and Solastalgia, where subdued electronica tastefully entices. The aural trickery of Ghost sYMbOl, meanwhile, will have you staring round the room wondering if that's your mobile going off; but its pitch-shifted vocals are a direct lift from the less-comforting work of superior Swedish pair The Knife.
Pop Art Blue wins the vocal prize with Martha Tilston's folky whisper, though you can't help yearning for the lost voice of longtime collaborator Sia Furler. This is especially the case when Binns takes to the microphone for the first time on Zinedine Zidane homage, Everything Up (Zizou). It takes style to deliver lines like: “Murakami would have told you so / If you catch him will you let me know? / Bobbing apples in the studio / Aikido, Aikido-si-do.” Oh dear…
The evident stylistic disparity is disappointing because variety is obviously well within the boys’ grasp. Sleeper is a genuinely unsettling and vibrant slice of M.I.A.-like electro insanity, while the closing All Of Us takes its own sweet time to build from tribal bump to blissful comedown anthem, and is all the better for it.
But too much here is either unchallenging and stuck in the late 90s, or too jarring to allow the album to flow. Maybe Zero 7’s time has truly passed. --Chris Jones
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Moving with the times,
By
This review is from: Yeah Ghost (Cd Album) (Audio CD)
Music is a very personal and subjective thing which is why I take most reviews with a pinch of salt but I felt I should redress the balance with this album as it doesn't appear to have got the recognition it deserves. Yeah Ghost isn't like Simple Things and it shouldn't be. Artists become boring and predictable if they don't develop but when they do, many fans deplore them.
This album has real depth and introspection, and marks a very exciting new direction into the next decade. Even so, it is still Zero 7 at its core, you just have to look a bit deeper. I was quite disappointed with Air's new album, Love 2, as I really enjoyed Pocket Symphony (more so than Zero 7's The Garden) and I think they have gone backwards by trying to remake Moon Safari. If you're wanting more of Simple Things or When It Falls then go and listen to them again. If you want to enjoy even more great music sit down and listen to this with an open mind. Those who do will be rewarded.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very, very disappointing,
By
This review is from: Yeah Ghost (Cd Album) (Audio CD)
Like many of the reviewers here I've been a fan of Zero 7 for many years. However Yeah Ghost is so poor that I'm almost lost for words and I gave it one star simply because it doesn't allow you to give it a zero. I had tickets to see them live in Brighton and was really looking forward to the new album to prepare myself for the gig but it left me completely flat, everything seems to be so laboured and unsatisfying. As for the gig the less said the better. This will be going straight to the charity shop I'm afraid.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I have been a fan of Zero 7 for a long time.. and I am even more now!,
By
This review is from: Yeah Ghost (Cd Album) (Audio CD)
There has been a lot of bad press about this album, and when I started listening to it, I did think it was very different from the previous albums. But it definitely is a grower. I absolutely love it now, and I prefer it even to the previous ones! Its a lot more up beat, and so many of the songs I absolutely love and cant help dancing to! Its up there with my favourite albums now, so give it a chance, you never know!
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