Shedding Skin by Ghostpoet

Ghostpoet is back with his brand new album ‘Shedding Skin’ inspired by his scrutiny of everyday living, punctuated with emotional undertones.

The LP opens with a woman speaking in Japanese before the track ‘Off Peak Dreams’, which sets up the tone for the eclecticism of the album as a whole. Injected with musicality, instruments are present throughout, and offer a soothing support to his dulcet London-tinged vocals.

Second track, ‘X Marks The Spot’ is a much moodier, atmospheric offering than opening track, which flows to a more resolved sound in ‘Be Right Back, Moving House’. The album is very contemplative as you can hear Ejimiwe quite literally observing his state of living, observing and taking everything in.

Around the fourth track – title track – ‘Shedding Skin’ things turn dark as the bass plugs away in a looming fashion and Ejimiwe’s voice is echoed by a female vocalist on the lyrics “You think you know me, you never know me” expressing a discourse and malevolent feeling, backed up by the stripped-back instrumental accompaniment. Things pick up with next track ‘Yes, I Helped You’, but the darkness still remains.

As the album develops through its various tracks, there is a clear feeling of melancholy and a real depiction of mental state, especially with the track ‘That Ring Down The Drain Kind Of Feeling’ which plods along at an even pace as the chorus wails “I’m back where I started, I’m back where I started again, left broken hearted, but maybe my heart’s on the mend again.”

The end of the album ends with ‘Nothing In The Way’ which sports long defiant chord progressions giving a sense that Ejimiwe has reached a sense of calm through the turmoil, and the album finishes in the same polite female Japanese voice to which it opened to.

‘Shedding Skin’ will be released via PIAS on 6th March 2015.

‘Off Peak Dreams’