1. Phantastes
2. The Royal Court
3. Loudest Speaker
4. Magick Words
5. Sleepwalkers
6. Potions
7. On the Shore
8. Mazes and Monsters
9. Put Yr Boots On!
The Sunset Rubdown-esque cut—entitled "Phantastes"—coils labyrinthine keyboards, synths and a circular guitar riff around a rushing drum kit. Then the fivesome shoots it all skyward with some NES-like bravado
World's Greatest Ghost's sound is euphoric while at the same time inflated with antagonism. A few of their tracks like "Loudest Speaker", "The Royal Court", and "Potions" have that Islands quality of "yeah you thought this was a happy song, but guess what, it's kind of gloomy". Their music dwells in a place where lyrics and music work in opposition to create another layer, another way to process the familiar. This contradiction manifests itself in other aspects of their work as well. Many of their tracks are filled with visions of monsters ("Mazes and Monsters"), magic potions, and kings and queens, but instead of romanticizing the mundane with whimsy, The World's Greatest Ghosts seems to ground these fantasies with realities of fear, mortality, truth, personal responsibility, self-fulfillment, and joy. Overall it's a pretty successful device.
No Magic is the best Portland rock record since the Thermals’ The Body, the Blood, the Machine, and I’m ready to stand behind it...That’s the great thing about WGG—they transport you to a place where everything is right, where all your worries go away, and, for nearly four minutes, to a fantasy world where everyone is as weird and spazzy as you are. Yeah, I want to go to there.
It's a recipe for certain disaster: a five-member band that includes three songwriters—two of whom are brothers, one of which is married to the bass player. But World's Greatest Ghosts have made the closeness of their relationships work for them; the strength of their music comes from its interlocking, familial parts. Their tautly satisfying debut full-length, No Magic, is led by the intertwined guitars of Casey and Anderson, the sound is state-of-the-art 21st-century indie rock, incorporating peppy, jumping-bean beats with vintage synth sounds and Dungeons & Dragons-influenced lyrics.
The insistent, surging sound of this Portland quintet is one that, throughout their new album No Magic, will not let up. It may flatten out in long vistas, but otherwise it is nothing but peaks, each one more monumental than the one before.
No Magic features some ace work from a group of folks I consider to be a staple in the Portland music community. Their music is balanced, showcasing each layer of the songs in a way that compliments rather than overwhelms. Nothing is lost as it progresses and it’s easy to pick out the talent that each member is clearly sporting. In addition to playing well, the group has a knack for putting together catchy, danceable pop-rock with hooks that will run through your head a hundred times in one day without getting boring. No Magic is actually all-magic and proves that the group can hold it’s own amidst the local pop-rockers.
"In the old days, according to conventional wisdom, punk rock records sounded shitty because getting access to a professional-quality recording setup was prohibitively expensive. These days, you can turn a laptop into a recording studio for less than it costs to buy a used touring van. So when a record sounds shitty in 2009, it's either because the bands are just bad at recording music or it's a deliberate aesthetic choice, an intentional nod to those bygone times and their innocent "authenticity." With the backing of indie heavyweight Matador, scuzz-punks Times New Viking could presumably produce pristine pop nuggets if they wanted to, but instead, on latest album Born Again Revisited as much as on previous releases, they make a clipped, fuzzy, blown-out racket, roughing up the obvious hooks of their songs until they are bruised, bloody things. They're great live." - WWEEK
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