Grade: B-
Dusk breakers, sparks green
crackling as they crest. Grey froth &
Moonight. Alone rockspear through black
Coast no water just
Rocksandwaves.
U.K.-based downtempo artists Zero 7 scatter shoot on Yeah Ghost, the group’s fourth full album. They score more hits than misses, but the targets are so far apart that their audience will likely wonder at what they were aiming.
As Zero 7, Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker released their first album, Simple Things, in 2001. The album was nominated for the U.K. and Ireland’s prestigious Mercury Music Prize and received broad critical accolade (Pitchfork, unsurprisingly, demurred, calling the album a prime example of “limp-tronica”).
The band found mainstream appeal by licensing singles such as “Destiny” and “In the Waiting Line” for use in overwrought dramatic montages on Smallville, House and Sex and the City. Zero 7 bucks this easy characterization and embraces the weird on Yeah Ghost. The scouts at Apple’s ad division are in for some disappointment.
Yeah Ghost could be a soundscape from an alien world’s beaches and balconies, temples and fire pits. The first cut, “Count Me Out,” undulates with baleen cascades of blue synth. The song doesn’t wash over the listener; it actively pulls and pushes them into a final, empyrean crescendo.
Then “Mr McGee” surprises with a Little Jackie jaunt into R&B, courtesy of guest singer Eska Mtungwazi. Zero 7 puts their production expertise to good use and provides an accessible handicap tee for anyone put off by the lead track’s abstract electronica.
“Swing,” featuring folk singer Martha Tilston, misses longtime collaborator Sia, who does not appear on any of the tracks. The steel drums are a nice touch, though.
An apparent throw-in to footballer Zinedine Zidane, “Everything Up (Zizou)” reintroduces Binns’ voice after his 2006 singing debut on the album, The Garden. For himself, Binns saves a choice verse, “Murakami would have told you so/If you catch him would you let me know/I’m bobbing apples in the studio/Aikido, aikido-se-do.” He not only pulls the line off, but also makes it one of the album’s most memorable moments.
Yeah Ghost peaks with “Pop Art Blue,” a lover’s retrospective campfire song that chills with “I cut myself on barbed wire/getting wood for the fire.” Mtungwazi returns for “Medicine Man” and “Sleeper” and she shocks some urgency into the album’s second half. Yet the songs break up the pace and turn Yeah Ghost into an eclectic trip-hop mix tape.
What’s left? “Ghost SYMbOL,” will excite fans of dubstep artists like Burial. “The Road” reassures, a warm techno-hymn that could be from the soundtrack to Brother Where Art Thou? A Space Odyssey. An expendable instrumental piece, “Solastalgia,” precedes.
Spare and patient, the final track, “All of Us,” triumphs. The tune’s placement and title imply Zero 7 intends to have taken the listener on a journey from the initial “Count Me Out.” Binns and Hardaker hop around so much, though, it’s hard to determine if we’re two steps forward, one step back or just off to the side somewhere.