Let’s call Ghastly Menace’s album experimental, but don’t let that make you think it’s inaccessible. A song like “Real Life” is 100% hook. “She Won’t Stay for Long” is a straight up ballad. And yet somewhere about 70% of the way in, each song takes a deep left turn somewhere else—beyond where it started.
This is the kind of album I want to find pretentious. I want to dislike it. But I can’t. It overcomes my prejudice against music that thinks it’s smarter than me, and drags me on my face along for the ride. That sounds bad, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. Really.
Stream it below and pay $10 to support this lo-fi sextet out of Chicago.
