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MARCH 24 2011

Album Review
Ghost Towns of the West EP.
Release Date: March 26, 2011
D (65/100)
Ghost Towns of the West debut with an uneven EP full of borrowed sounds and dotted with vaguely Christian motifs.
Music: 13/20
"Soulweaver" kicks off the record, and sets the tone for the rest of it: Nonsense. Though, were it not for the maddening vocals, a lot more of this record would be pretty listenable. "That Cold Wind" has a pretty nifty intro, and "Waited" has its moments, but even those songs feel unoriginal. Really, all I hear on this record is Pearl Jam, then Dave Matthews, then O.A.R., then any of a dozen others in the jam band ouroboros.

Lyrics: 5/20
While Ghost Towns don't label themselves a "Christian Rock" act, the EP contains a lot of stuff about struggling with God and being angry at God and generally they just seem to care a lot more about what God thinks than what their listener thinks. "Pilot's License" is a forced analogy about an angel getting its wings. Then there's "The Good Book," which I'm pretty sure (not positive, but pretty sure) is a song about the New Testament.

See, the problem with singing about Jesus Christ in a rock tune is it's an awful lot like dropping an A-bomb—there's just no way to do it gracefully. It's just "sing-sing-song-song JEEEE-ZUUUS singity-sing-sing-song..." It just... hangs there—like when your blind date casually mentions they're "like, real into Chuck Manson," or what have you. Oh, also, reportedly, a Soulweaver is "a makeshift cantilever." So... the more you know, right?

Production: 16/20
The band's promotional materials never miss a chance to namedrop album producer Ed Ackerson (BNLX, Polara), but I guess when his work is one of the major assets on the disc, you have to juice it for all it's worth. The album is very crisp and professional sounding.

The sleeve art is arbitrary and awkward—a note really only worth making when sleeve art is so slapdash and random: some cactus-looking thing, some kind of white splat, and something with elephants and a moon—oh, and they put their lyrics on this thing.

Technical Proficiency: 20/20
The Ghost Towns of the West EP is a technically proficient record.

Overall: 11/20
I want to say something unique about Ghost Towns, but really, every scene in the world has a hundred bands that sound like a hundred other bands, and whether it's in the name of "appropriation," or "homage," or "plausible deniability," the very nitty gritty of it is: what's being presented is not the genuine artifact. As a creative person—and especially as Christian Rockers—it takes real, hard work and determination—and risk—to present to the world something truly original—and when that does happen, it's really something to behold. Still, when an effort misses—all grist to the mill—you step up and kick the next one's ass.

Todd Pitman
Ghost Towns of the West release the debut EP this Saturday, March 26 at the Fine Line.