Geographer – Innocent Ghosts Review
Geographer’s Mike Deni lived in New Jersey before moving to the sunshine state. Deni’s life was hit with unfortunate sadness after the unexpected losses to his father and his sister. While sometimes death and music can get into the confines or being cliché due to the sadness around it, Geographer has done something very special with their album “Innocent Ghosts”. – the title may be self-explanatory
The album starts off with a trick, it’s uses more a synth-pop effect to throw you off, kind of in an upbeat baroque pop sort of fashion but “Can’t You Wait” is more depressing then it leads on though at times I feel like I’m mis-interpreting the definition, where’s song meanings for these smaller artists?
Rushing In, Rushing Out is the stand out track (to become the track that ends up in a hospital drama near you), the track is pretty self-explanatory as Deni sings about sitting in a hospital waiting room, where Deni ponders many thoughts such as “waiting for open arms” but he “won’t wait forever” which defines why Geographer is so great, they are willingly open with their song writing discussing the not so popular thoughts and not just focusing on death in itself (yes death is bad but there are more ways to articulate it then just being sad about it). I hadn’t known about his family’s strife until I was to complete the review but this track almost had me in tears of sympathy. Deni pours his whole heart in this song and he’s able to command purvey those feelings that not many artists can.
Caught On Fire, Deni takes a backseat on lead vocals for now former member Kacey Johansing. Comparing some of the tracks on her myspace, Johansing seems to have been let free with the confines of a band that her solo efforts have not yielded. She gives the band a whole new dynamic on backup duties and steals the show in the 3rd track which discusses the feeling of not loving someone who loves you back to an amazing effort.
The rest of the album doesn’t have the most immediate value as the first tracks but it’s more because the band tries different things. Did I forget to mention how well the music is being played? They aren’t an orchestra so they’ll use different effects for different tracks such as the cello, heart strings as well as synth-machine. I guess I’ll go ahead and classify them as baroque pop but I feel like they don’t sound like anyone despite being so painfully simple at times. They just are the complete package when it comes to looking for an artist with creativity but that also some sort of an appeal to the masses. Deni and Johansing do wonderful jobs on vocals occasionally experimenting and coming out their normal shells in the right places.
I’m really debating the album score right now, which is why I’ve put off writing this review for some time. Is it just great or is it best of the year material?
Rating: 5 out of 5
I think it’s ultimately an album I HAVE to go back to. After close inspection all the songs are great even if they don’t appear that way at first. Some songs just come to a slow start but are worth this adventure this album puts you on.
I don’t know about 2009 but it would easily make the 2008 list.
I’ve included the first 3 songs, see if you are enticed to check out the album:
Can’t You Wait by Geographer
Rushing In Rushing Out by Geographer
Caught A Fire by Geographer
Tags: album, Folk, Geographer, San Francisco
It’s great to see someone do a thorough review on this album because I had a tough time describing it. I just bought it last weekend and had already listened to it from start to finish a number of times without skipping a single track. I agree, it’s hard to pinpoint stand out tracks after the initial ones, but as a whole, they seamlessly work beautifully together and the rest really grows on you. While there’s subtlety, it’s definitely full of substance and I recommend the entire album too.