Radical Face — Ghost

Ben Cooper has previously recorded with Alex Cane as a part of the duo Electric President. This is his second full length solo recording, released under the Radical Face moniker, and the first for Morr Music. Ghost is a well recorded album, and it has an intimate feel which draws you in with the first couple of tracks.

Though Ben Cooper’s past work has been associated with at least partly electronic music, Ghost is more of a mellow pop album. The songs remind me a lot of the Postal Service, and Sufjan Stevens. I expect that people who are into the aforementioned artists might dig this album.

There is one problem with the album though; most of the songs sound similar in tempo and tone. By the end of the album, it even sounds like some of the chord progressions of the previous songs are repeated. When I made notes for each of the songs, this is what I came up with most of the time: slow, mellow beginning (either keyboards or acoustic guitar), strident middle part with gentle vocals relating to personal relationships, ends with kind of a crescendo. There are a couple of other songs that are a bit off of that path, but not far.

Ghost is being touted by the label as Ben Cooper’s attempt to emulate Elliot Smith and Tim Buckley. There’s certainly nothing here resembling the intensity of Tim Buckley, so it’s hard to understand that comparison. The Elliot Smith reference seems a little more apt. Cooper favors a whispery vocal style, which could very well have been influenced by the latter.

If you take the lack of variation out of the equation, Ghost is actually a fairly decent album. The arrangements are well done, and there is a variety of instruments on each track, providing a tapestry of sounds, and an unassuming complexity to these melodic tunes. Too bad it gets a bit boring when listened to all the way through.