Raw, Introspective, and Memorialist Emo Music:
Love Ghost Releases thirteen on Friday the 13th
In true gothic fashion, the international rock sensation Love Ghost has chosen Friday the 13th to release their new record, thirteen, an album with thirteen vulnerable, Midwest-grunge-forward tracks with the cohesion of a passionate memorial service conducted by some of the most creative and cohesively stylistic emo-adjacent musicians out there today.
Created with producer Mike Summers (Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Mac Miller, and more), the LP bridges the influences of hard rock, alternative, emo, and hip-hop to form the sonic representations of “memories that [they] probably should’ve buried.” Each song plays like a rite of its own connection to something greater that stitches them all together, even amidst the darker possibilities of what that could mean. They’re thirteen letters to the past, or at least to some memory or legend that shaped the experiences that Love Ghost have endured well enough to transform with drops of their own gothic blood to stain them with.
Listen to Love Ghost’s latest record, thirteen
From the moment the record kicks off, you’re sucked into the world of Love Ghost that bears resemblance to the underground bands you’d find back on the best parts of the internet in the early days of Brand New, Armor for Sleep, My Chemical Romance, even touches of Dead Poetic.
But don’t let the paltry reaches for influences distract you from the originality they carry uniquely in a modern sense; they’ve even self-described (accurately) as “modern phantom” sounding. Even in the way they go about releasing music, Love Ghost has slated the thirteen songs to come out on Friday the thirteenth, making a particular mark on the history and release experience for this record.
“‘thirteen’ is probably the most vulnerable record I’ve ever made. 13 is the age I was expelled from school, and was the age where I started to feel like I didn’t belong. I think a lot of this record comes from that feeling of always being on the outside looking in. It’s an acoustic Midwest grunge album about isolation, identity, and trying to find something beautiful in the uglier parts of life. It feels like a collection of memories that I probably should’ve buried.” – Finnegan Bell, Love Ghost frontman
The lyrics, astutely poetic, highlight the metaphors of the stories as much as they do thirteen’s aesthetic. The muted rhythmic sections over acoustic guitars and moody swelling leads make the lines cut even deeper on songs like Into the Woods: “I could wash my hands forever, it won’t wash away the stain” and, “its me against myself, I know I’m not supposed to win.”
Their visual style reaches for more than the aesthetics of the macabre or darker emo and goth presentation as well. One song in particular carries a very literal yet ironic meaning as its visualizer displays a house burning down; a narrated diary entry uses the flames of a past tragedy to illuminate a core memory being reflected upon in “Turpentine This House.”
” … There was something so biblical and so epic about watching a fire at its maximum power, to witness the true strength of Mother Nature. People tend to usually write letters to themselves in the future, but today I’ve decided to write a letter to me in the past. Not everything had worked out as you had hoped. It could be better; it could be worse; it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you keep on putting one foot in front of the other.”
Watch the music video for “Turpentine This House” by Love Ghost
Tracks like “Can’t Run Forever,” “Am I Evil?” and “Blood and Roses” carry on their dark, cinematic aesthetic. Even if you’re not watching the visualizers or perusing their tastefully black-and-red-clad stage presence and portraits, the methods of songwriting and contents of the record easily bucks the notion that Love Ghost is running a gimmick as they artfully blend the dynamics of highs and lows through rich instrumental textures as craftsman in their own language.
Songs like “Pointless” lean more toward a blend of the melodic hardcore stylings of Welsh band Casey with the cadence that satisfies in a similar way that Dexter and the Moonrocks’ “Freakin’ Out” does. In an impressive and seamless stretch to more acoustic-steady
An eclectic sound that still confidently strikes true to its. “I Left My Home” reminds me of My Chemical Romance’s “The Ghost of You” finding solace in the arms of a southern folk gothic ballad. In a story that underlines the horrors of flashbacks to dark days of battle, of watching your brothers drop to the ground around you, lyrics spare no detail without sacrificing poetic expression of such a dark topic: “Sargeant said to keep your head up / They haven’t found a way to bury you yet.”
Even with the heartwrenching topics explored in the record thirteen, Love Ghost has a penchant to indulge the romance buried alive in a still-bleeding heart. Tracks like “Snake Boy” and “Blood and Roses” are where the grungy meets the sacred. “Love me like you hate me now / Touch me like a secret that you’d kill to keep” remind me of Lil Peep’s darker sensitivities in the romantic realm they touch on.
Based in Los Angeles, the “Modern Phantom” sound of Love Ghost has spread their well-earned reputation for a blackened, cinematic aesthetic and introspective songwriting to international audiences. Through relentless touring and collaborations with artists and producers across the alternative and rock worlds, the band has performed across North America, Europe, Mexico, and Asia, with appearances at major events including Warped Tour and Rockpalast. Gaining coverage from Rolling Stone (including Rolling Stone MX), Alternative Press, and Sonic Seducer, their collaborations with Grammy-nominated and internationally recognized artists and producers have continued to expand their sound, connecting to fans across the grunge, heavy rock, emo, and gothic flare. Love Ghost writes from their hearts from the things they’ve endured in chapters of reflection and the morose, and their music resonates with outsider in an evolving world of darkness, vulnerability, rebellion, and connection.
Love Ghost’s latest record, thirteen, is a record that transforms the dark night of the soul into meaningful songs that triumph in the face of addiction, loss, ostraciszation, and the bittersweet romance of existential burden.
