Ghostory is the third album from NYC duo School of Seven Bells (SVIIB), and first after the departure of vocalist/keyboardist Claudia Deheza. Claudia’s loss doesn’t really seem to have affected the band all that much, her twin sister Alejandra and guitarist/producer Benjamin Curtis pick up right where they left off with 2010’s Disconnect From Desire. They combine everything from techno to dream pop, to indie rock and shoegaze to create their sound, and the result in this case will have fans of M83, and more recently Chairlift, buzzing with excitement.
SVIIB’s first album, 2008’s Alpinisms, had an experimental bent and featured some seriously intriguing rhythms, since then however, they have focused much more on the function than the form. Shimmering pop perfection is what they’re all about now, and from the first notes of beautiful opening track "The Night" it’s safe to say they’ve come close to achieving their goal. Ghostory is track after track of hands-in-the-air moments with Deheza and Curtis never bashful about letting their undeniably groovy choruses soar of into the stratosphere. "Lafaye" is particularly epic, and the perfect distillation of what SVIIB have come to do best, make 4-minute snippets of pure, unadulterated propulsion.
If there’s a shortcoming with Ghostory it might be the closeness of this record with Disconnect From Desire. One could easily intermingle the songs from each release without many appa, and when there is something like Alpinisms out there it’s a little bit of a disappointment. Yes, SVIIB are able to write to some great pop tunes, but how many 4-on-the-floor electro powered crescendos can one handle? By the time "Scavenger", "White Wind" and "When You Sing" come around at the end of the record they’re unlikely to strike any lasting chord with someone that sat through almost a half-hour of the same already.
Still, it would be hard to look past this album. SVIIB create music in a pretty crowded environment, with the aforementioned M83 and Chairlift as well as Beach House and The Radio Dept., swooping up a great deal of critical acclaim, Deheza and Curtis prove they are at least equal to the their contemporaries, and definitely deserve mention as one of electro pop’s forerunners. With their experimental shoegazing beginnings now clearly in the rearview, SVIIB have further polished their sound, and Ghostory is the lovely result. No scary ghosts inside this haunted house, only a bunch of ghouls with a mind to get down.
Grade: B
~Steve Dobek
I am going to kindly disagree with this review - though it gives a B- as I find this to be a vast improvement over their previous release. (Actually, the review is quite positive, but the negative comments are quite strong and draw attention away from the positive.
It is stated "but how many 4-on-the-floor electro powered crescendos can one handle" - actually, I was hard pressed to find four on the floor kick beats on any of the tracks. The beats are well done and add to the music.
Songs without or minimal drums like Reappear are haunting and have a sci-fi feel.
The review is fair and music opinions are subjective. But where so many (paste, popmatters,) are using twin sister Claudia's departure to tear this release apart, I find it to be cohesive and focused.