When I think about the art that defined the COVID era, there are a few key albums that come to mind. However, “By the Time I Get to Pheonix” by Injury Reserve is the only one that fully captured that isolating feeling of watching the world fall apart around you. The album was about the loss of loved ones, with the 3rd member of the group, Steppa J. Groggs, passing away halfway through the recording of the album, and the dystopian soundscape the remaining members created on that record is one of the most striking depictions of grief ever put to tape.
Dealing with loss and grief is one of the most difficult things you will ever do, and you will do it often, and you will do it poorly; grief feels like the end of the world sometimes. But then the storm clears, and you keep on living.
Now half a decade after the release of “By the Time I Get to Pheonix” and the pandemic that birthed it, the shadow of COVID still looms over American culture, but life continues. “My Ghosts Go Ghost” is the first album Nathaniel Ritchie and Parker Corey have released as the newly renamed “By Storm” and is a wildly experimental collection of songs that serve as their epilogue to grief.
This album is dark; not just thematically but sonically as well. Corey’s abstract, spacey production makes for a listening experience that feels like getting lost in a black void with the sounds simply floating around you. The instrumentals are often intentionally disjointed with drums that lurch forward and flows from Ritchie that move lazily in and out of time.
His lyrics are the same, very train-of-thought, often going in circles returning to themes of feeling lost as you move into the later stages of your life. And Ritchie’s vocals are one of the most striking elements of the record; they are wildly emotive in a way that is almost theatrical, moving from frantic shrieks to fleeting whispers within the same song, and are just dripping with personality.
On the opening track “Can I Have You for Myself” Ritchie writes about his apprehension surrounding the birth of his first child, his vocals so quiet at times that he develops vocal fry. The atmospheric production and reserved vocal delivery result in a deeply intimate listening experience. It’s almost confessional; things best left unsaid or whispered underneath your breath because saying them out loud makes them feel too real.
Similarly, on the song “In My Town,” he laments over his life not being in the place he thought it would be, with touring taking a toll on him both emotionally and monetarily, the instrumental of which sounds like a long, late-night drive: monotonous and dark a theme that holds true for a good number of the songs on the album.
“Zig Zag” was the first single for the album and is another clear highlight that shows off Ritchie’s skill as a rapper with him flowing over a beat that has a 13/8 time signature, something completely unheard of in the genre. In that way Parker Corey’s production on this album is, I would argue, the first example of a full post-rap album. The two men boil the genre down to its most basic elements and then rebuild it from the ground up. With songs that are 7 minutes long and lacking any traditional song structure, “My Ghosts Go Ghost” isn’t a collection of songs so much as it is a space for the listener to get lost in.
The second half of the record does move away from the depressed sound palate of the first, with songs like “Double Trio 2” and “And I Dance” being a high energy contrast with the rest of the record. The former of which is this wild, frantic whirlwind of blaring horns and stuttering drums that sounds like a jazzier version of some of the more chaotic cuts on “By the Time I Get to Pheonix.” These last few tracks show Ritchie really coming to terms with his grief and show him reflecting on the loss of his former group member without sinking into depression that consumes the first half of the record.
“I got ash in my locs, and I dance! (just dance with me that’s all that we can do).” Ritchie’s bittersweet refrain of “there’s nothing to run from” is delivered over a euphoric, electronic symphony as the buzzy synths and blown out drums build and build before eventually consuming him. As hard as it may be, get up, go outside, and dance. Loss like that never really leaves you; you just have to struggle through it.
On “My Ghosts Go Ghost” Parker Corey and Nathanial Ritchie have not only created a record full of masterfully produced and written songs but have crafted a sound that defies comparison. “My Ghosts Go Ghost” exists at the intersection of technical ability and wild creativity, resulting in one of the most engaging listening experiences of the last few years. Every so often an album comes out that ventures so far away from what everyone else is doing, crafting such a singular, captivating sound that it will have musicians chasing it for years to come. “My Ghosts Go Ghost” is one of those records.
10/10
