Holy Ghost! - 'Holy Ghost!' (V2) Released: 18/04/11

Still mourning the death of James Murphy’s credible disco project, LCD Soundsystem? Fear not, Holy Ghost have finally arrived with a debut to fill the void. The New York duo are not newcomers, before becoming Holy Ghost they were in a hip-hop group whose one and only album was produced by James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy from the highly regarded The DFA. The group disbanded but Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel started working in a new direction as Holy Ghost in 2007.
 
If you are looking for a varied sound you might be disappointed as the tempo of this self-titled debut barely alters, the synths are clean and the vocals are heavily auto-tuned. Diversity isn’t something you need when you have quality tracks such as opener, 'Do It Again', originally released in 2007 when the electro sound was in vogue. Since then, Holy Ghost have been remixing various artists whilst creating the album, unfortunately this has meant that they have missed out on the trend everybody has already capitalised on. 'Wait and Sea' is a sure-fire pop hit with a bouncy beat and catchy chorus’. Throughout the album you get to meet one foot tapping tune followed by another, this is shamefully smooth, you would struggle not to bring a smile but it gets tedious with the lack of experimentation.
 
With the beats becoming a signature sound and the vocals rarely showing emotion you do get lost a little. Any track on this debut would be well suited as a stand-alone song, even as a single but as a ten-track record with songs average five-minutes it becomes a bit hard work. 'Jam for Jerry' is one of the stand-outs and like the majority of the record it would fill a dance-floor.
 
'Hold On' is a bit more daring with the sound and lyrics that are actually meaningful as it takes a chill-out approach. The funk vibes come across in the energetic sound from 'It’s Not Over' where steel drumming set it apart. Album closer, 'Some Children' has a more ‘band’ feel to it, heading into a direction similar to one Friendly Fires took as more sounds are taken and varied vocals can be heard.
 
A good album, it just seems to have lost in translation in what it's trying to be.