WHEN YOU'RE DEAD - ONE SECOND

THE GHOST were a five piece band out of Birmingham, England releasing this one album in 1970. We get male and female lead vocals but the male are more common. The female Shirley Kent would leave after this record and while the band tried to go on using a different name they ended up folding the tent. Shirley adds acoustic guitar and tambourine. The male lead singer is Paul Eastment who also plays lead guitar and what a talented guitar player he is.

It's important to note that Paul is the cousin of Tony Iommi of BLACK SABBATH fame who also were from Birmingham, England. Noteworthy because THE GHOST released this one album in 1970 while BLACK SABBATH released two studio albums that year and I have to believe that Paul tried to follow his cousin's lead into making music that was dark and scary. I was just reading the liner notes of that "Heresie" album by UNIVERS ZERO and how people would actually leave the concerts out of fear. No need to worry about that with THE GHOST and that's my lament. Positive, upbeat music played with dark lyrics and titles shows they just didn't get it. I mean read the lyrics to "Night Of The Warlock" but then listen to the catchy music, they just don't match.

I'm not big on either vocalist but yes they can sing. Besides the electric guitar the organ certainly solos quite often. So while I like some of these tracks this is inconsistent, up and down and far from a 4 star record in my world. The one track that stands out for me is "Too Late To Cry" an energetic piece with some excellent guitar. Those repeated guitar melodies really hit the spot. The opener "When Your Dead" is similar but more organ. I'm not into "Indian Maid" for the lyrics and female vocals. "Hearts And Flowers" also is one I don't like, kind of folky and ballad-like with female vocals but dual vocals more.

A lot of catchy music here with a lot of vocals but come on you make your album cover look haunting with your band name in blood dripping down from the letters and then we get this catchy, upbeat music? 3 stars is all I got.