GHOSTWOMAN release refreshingly raw fourth album ‘Welcome to the Civilized World’
The garage-rock duo remain as authentic as ever on their latest release.
Photo: Press
The Belgium/Canada-based duo Evan Uschenko and Ille van Dessel, aka GHOSTWOMAN, are known for doing things their own way, having ploughed their own furrow in the world of garage/ psych-rock. The pair have now released their fourth album, Welcome to the Civilized World, which has been recorded in equal parts across Belgium and Canada over the past couple of years, resulting in an authentic body of music that brings their raw emotions to the forefront.
The album begins with a gentle piano melody that lures you into a false sense of security, but just as you’re beginning to wonder if you’ve put on the right album, the song explodes into life without warning. With punchy guitar licks and snarling vocals, the title track Welcome to the Civilised World is a powerful and provocative introduction to the album, and you’re immediately strapped in to see what the rest of the album has to offer.
There’s a shift in the energy for second track Alive, which features brighter guitar, prominent harmonies and an overall slower, more reflective tone. The instrumentals and fuzzy guitar solo that build up towards the end of the song create the energy and give the sense of a moment being captured in time. The vocals, as with most of the tracks on the album, are quite distorted and play more of a background role in the mix, reflecting Uschenko’s view when creating the album that the lyrics aren’t important and the songs are instead shaped by the music.
As the album continues with energetic tracks that Jesus and Gold Pieces, it becomes clear that this is music that has been made with genuine passion; packed with emotion and raw energy. The unrelenting guitar and abstract lyrics start to make you feel like you’re stuck in a hypnotic trance in the best possible way.
Levon is a midway highlight on the album, with sharper, scuzzy, Osees-esque guitar and ominous vocal delivery showcasing their garage-rock influences. Whereas the more psychedelic side of Ghostwoman floats up to the surface in next track, Dime a Dozen, with vocal delivery that feels dreamlike, complimenting the low brooding guitar melody, steady drums, and tambourine that adds an all-important high-pitched jingle.
The fuzz is then turned back up for When You All Were Young, which is so heavy on the distortion that it almost sounds like something being electrocuted — my kind of song. The song cackles with energy throughout, only enhanced by the up-tempo drums that gets its moment towards the end of the track when the guitars start to fade away.
As the album continues in a similar vein, with Song For Sunny and From Now On, what becomes more noticeable is how the band has managed to capture the feeling of live music and not lose any of the energy, as often happens when recording music. The way some of the songs fade in and out with the band counting in the beat, the band have purposefully left the album a bit rough around the edges, rather than over-polishing it, and it’s worked well in creating an album that feels real and is easy to connect with.
Penultimate song, Anhedonia, offers up a softer and smoother ride, with less fuzz and more of a bluesy feel. The vocals shine through more but, again, the guitar takes centre stage in this track, with a powerful and free-flowing melody that’s reminiscent of some of The Doors’ classics.
Who Are You? is a fitting end to the album, picking up the pace once more for a lively, hazy ride, before the song peters out and we come to a natural end on the tumultuous journey that GHOSTWOMAN has taken us on.
As we have come to expect commercial, polished albums in the modern age, Welcome to the Civilized World is a refreshing break from the radio-friendly music we’ve become accustomed to, interrupting us with something real, raw and honest, dished up in the perfect mix of punk, garage and psych-rock.
Welcome to the Civilized World is out now via Full Time Hobby.
