GHOSTS

Strawbs

Prog Folk

4.02 | 231 ratings

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ZowieZiggy
Prog Reviewer

The band keeps on with their symphonic prog orientation. After some good albums from that vein, Ghosts is another fine symphonic contribution of Strawbs.

The opening number though almost starts as a folkish tune (but this aspect is probably due to the acoustic intro). It rapidly changes into an excellent and almost Genesis track full of lush keyboards, passionate vocals and a fiery beat. It is an excellent counterpart of Autumn that brilliantly opened their previous album. It is a highlight here as well.

There won't be much songs with such a great mood, unfortunately. Some more straight rock music like Starshine which is fine with me but holds little prog elements (being symph or just folk ones). It follows a more traditional Strawbs song (Lemon Song). More on the acoustic side, it features nice vocals but it sounds too much American style to my ears.

It is the perfect introduction of the poor country & Western Where Do You Go which is probably the one & only press next type of song from Ghosts.

The concept of mini-suite seemed to work fine since the previous Autumn, the band is back with another jewel: The Life Auction during which Cousins seems to be willing to recreate the Gabriel voice. If you add the great mellotron lines, you almost get another Genesis song. Which sounds pretty good to my ears. It is probably unexpected but this is another highlight from this album. One of their best tracks ever IMHHO.

The next one that is moving me is the very melodic You & I. The impeccable vocal harmonies combined with such fine keyboards are just a wonder to listen to. It is really a shame IMO that Strawbs didn't capitalize more on such tracks. But maybe I'm too much biased with their very good symphonic songs which I much more like than their average and religious oriented Grace Darling style.

Three stars for this good album.

ZowieZiggy | 3/5 | 2008-10-11

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