Review Summary: A mixed bag of mediocrity
The most striking element of Geographer’s newest outing, “Ghost Modern”, is its similarity to a bag of Chex Mix. There’s a nice variety of assorted treats but between the brief dialogues I’ve had and post-party damage reports, there tends to be supporters for each individual piece’s supremacy but seldom is there equal and/or substantial praise about the bag as a whole.
So in my case, I like the little bread squiggles the most by a large margin. Which can be equated to the tracks “I’m Ready” or “The Fire is Coming” both of which have exotic, well utilized instrumentation and maintain an appropriate balance of subtle moments and powerful crescendos. Admittedly, the real opening track “I’m Ready” and the third track “Need” are all heavy on the Shins garnish, but both do an admirable job at being pleasant, atmospheric and catchy without seeming too simplistic. These songs are nothing new by any means, but they have character and flavor which far supersedes the rest.
A distant second place in my book are the the pretzels and mini breads. But it’s a far from a prestigious distinction, as both are rather bland and nowhere near approach the quality, of say, a bag a mustard pretzel nuggets. But, they are still edible and admittedly an integral part of the Chex Mix bag. And here is where the majority of the tracks fit in. Tracks such as “Keep” or “Patience” are decent (albeit forgettable) in context of the rest of the songs, but really there are a lot of better versions of similar styles to be found somewhere else.
Last of all are the Chex themselves. While they are the eponymous centerpiece of the entire arrangement I find them initially inoffensive, but ultimately dry and unpleasant. Quieter or weirder moments like “Falling Apart” or “Read Your Palm” aren't hyper abrasive, but really have little value and grow old quickly. The more skeletal tracks force one to listen what is actually being said, which I found out is not a whole lot. The lyricism is adequate at best but more often feels designed to give the song a tone rather than to actually be read. I feel as though you could replace the words on these tracks with similar sounding gibberish and the songs would not be worse off. Which is fine if the rest of the components are interesting enough to be worth focusing on. And while I will say that this is true more than half of the time, it still leaves a rather gaping hole.
Ultimately, there’s quite a bit of variety on display here but not really a good kind. It’s an scatterbrained listen front to back, whose best components are borrowed from other artists. The constant mood shifts provide relief from the odd unpleasant or tiresome arrangement but also never lets the listener really get entrenched or invested. And maybe you've got different preferences to me but I find it hard to believe someone could be impressed by all the components on display. In that regard, there’s some modestly interesting things to be had, but between the basic lyricism, failure to establish any lasting impression track to track, and equal measures derivative and unambitious, I find myself thinking what most people think when they see Chex Mix..
