By Eric Reyes
If you had a nickel for every time I brought up my emo roots, you’d have enough to buy an Arizona Iced Tea (I love Cucumber Green Tea). I dipped out of the genre for a good near-decade and this gig has, fortunately, reconnected me with worthwhile acts that either harken back to, pay homage to, or outright reinvigorate the genre. ‘Bloody Mary’ from Love Ghost really dug deep in me and stoked some embers, let me tell you.
Love Ghost takes a page from earlier act’s debut albums and puts on offer a soft, lilting track that is easy to fall asleep to, but not out of boredom. It’s a sense of ease, of relaxation, of peace. It’s like being at that old park on the edge of town that no one goes to and sitting on an old metal bench with your crush, and maybe letting them lay their head on your lap as you stroke their hair and sing a song much like this, line for line. Shades of Just Surrender, Hawthorne Heights precursor A Day In The Life, the softer tracks from The Used, and early, super early, A Day To Remember.
The vocal performance here works hand in hand with the sleepy, wafting instrumentals. It’s not exactly a lullaby, nor a swan song. It’s that heartfelt and clumsily poetic ode to that girl (Or guy, romanticism isn’t gender-exclusive) that was challenging to love. Pop this track on and take yourself back to the skinny-jeans wearing, highlight-adorned, piercing-bestudded era of our near universal youth.