New Music Tuesday: Crooked Ghost – Colors Bleed [EP]

Folks, I have been covering music on the wonderful interwebs for a dozen years, and I can honestly say that I have heard it all. I’ve acknowledged thousands of “RIYL” recommendations. Usually they are wrong, but I can see where they are coming from. I used to try to amplify word counts in album reviews by drawing comparisons to likewise artists, often mention in the “RIYL” sections. And sometimes I would try to amplify the review once again by using an exhausting amount of adverbs about how completely original a band was, and couldn’t be compared. But as I grow old and wary in what I put on this site, I am beginning to realize that familiarization isn’t such a bad thing, really. Take a band like Crooked Ghost, for instance. Crooked Ghost is hands down, without a fucking doubt in the world, something fresh and original, yet very familiar in all the right ways.

Colors Bleed is a post-punk (whatever the fuck that really means) band that has a sound that intertwines brilliant vocals that are backed by a bit of grunge-like (this makes more sense to me) guitar and drum work with incredibly strategic vocals that are both fascinating and goddamned intriguing. Colors Bleed is a 4-track collection of songs that are absolutely mind-blowing in their own individual ways, with each track sounding like a stand alone single with its own merit and understanding of what it is giving to the world. “Sinew in Red” could be considered the obvious single, and not just because it is the actual “single”, but it just has that type of catchiness that we as listeners are supposed to be looking for. There is so much to love in this track, it’s hard to imagine Crooked Ghost NOT making it the stand alone track.

But, being the ever pretentious asshole that I am, I will be calling the 7 minute opus that is “Golden Blue” the best fucking song on the album, and one of the best songs I have heard in quite a while. The range and movement that exists in this highly energetic track is absolutely compelling, and is something that really needs to be appreciated all on its own.

Colors Bleed is a phenomenal release in it’s own right, and it should definitely be enjoyed by all. If I truly needed to make the bullshit comparisons that tend to make the quotes of press releases and the social media renegades, I guess I would say it is a cross between Simple Minds and Soul Asylum. I’m not sure how much I would entirely agree with this, but I love both of these bands. And I now love Crooked Ghost. So I guess that isn’t nothing, right? If that is how you have to learn about new and wonderful music, let’s go with that!