MrNepathy's Blog

In order to write a review of the album Ghosts Don’t Disappear by Jonah Knight, I’m going to start with a mini review of his previous album, Singer/Songfighter, because I listened to that one first. Singer/Songfighter is a mixture of song styles, some leaning towards acoustic and folk while others have a light punk sound. Some of those styles, particularly the acoustic ones, work better. They’re a bit like Obadiah Parker if you removed the piano, or Kings of Convenience in that the music skews towards the lighter tones. “Cameron’s Dog” and “Everything Will Be Fine” are where this style really clicks whereas “Calling” feels like an odd mixture of New Orleans style guitar and folk vocals. Stylistic experimentation within a single album is fairly common. Compare “Christians in Black” to “Like I Needed” by Rogue Wave from Asleep at Heaven’s Gate or “Devil” to “Dakota” from Stereophonics on Language, Sex, Violence, Other.

By listening to Singer/Songfighter a few times before trying Ghosts Don’t Disappear I wasn’t sure what to expect from the latter. After listening to Ghosts Don’t Disappear, I can say that if Singer/Songfighter is a series of experiments then Ghosts Don’t Disappear is a collection focused on a single style. Fortunately it’s the style that seems best suited for Knight. That style, when combined with a smoother recording method, makes Ghosts Don’t Disappear a far more polished album than his first endeavor in the same way that Nevermind is a smoother album than Bleach.

But that’s not to say it’s for everyone. The acoustic music scene is a niche market. Not everyone likes music boiled down to its basic components: unplugged instruments and the human voice. If you enjoy music from Jose Gonzalez, Jonathan Kingham, Maria Taylor, Jonatha Brooke, Jack Johnson and Glen Phillips, keep reading. If you don’t, this album probably isn’t for you any more than a country album, no matter how good, is meant for me.

Ghosts Don’t Disappear is a somewhat thematic album of six songs, much like the album Secrets of the New Explorers by Glen Phillips which is a collection of songs about the privatization of space exploration, except Secrets is weirder. Ghosts not only deals with apparitions of people, but also of events and even stars. Everything generates a ghost of some sort even if it only haunts an individual’s mind. The theme is not so overwhelming that the individual songs are lost to it.

The music is solid throughout, with a violin in “Elizabeth Feels Differently” and an accordion in “Some Day We’ll All Be Ghosts” to accompany the ever-present acoustic guitar.  At times the guitar will have you tapping your feet. It sets the mood well and is a joy to listen to, which is good because there aren’t many other instruments to mask it if it were bad.

Knight seems to have three styles of singing: normal, hushed and a hybrid. In “Someday We’ll All Be Ghosts” and “The Window Frames” he seems to be singing effortless with his usual tone. Given most of his songs are stories, I think this style works for him. It adds more realism to it. The hushed tone, used in “Far” is perhaps fitting to the song, but when compared to his normal way of singing I don’t think it works as well. A good way to put it is, his voice works better as a narrator than a character. He has a storyteller’s voice. For the song “Rhythm” there is a bit of the husky quality, but it’s far more relaxed and contrasts nicely to the female voice accompanying him. Also the song is a bit melancholy, so I think it’s appropriate. By far “Rhythm” is the standout song on the album.

The main way I judge an album is, “can I listen to it without having to skip some of the tracks?” The answer to that question is yes. I prefer some to others and I’m more likely to add “Someday We’ll All Be Ghosts” and “Rhythm” to a playlist than I am likely to add “Far” or “The Problem With Math” but that’s true of any album. When I’m generating a playlist for the day or to save I rarely add an entire album. I have a playlist specifically for sitting around a campfire with friends. It’s populated with mellow songs from the likes of Glen Phillips, Simon & Garfunkel, Luce, Guster, Willie Porter and many others. A few tracks from Ghosts Don’t Disappear will be added to that group. This is good “coffee house” music. If you heard Jonah Knight playing in a coffee house, you would probably stop and listen.

My advice, if you have iTunes take a listen. Start with “Rhythm.” If you like the thirty seconds, take the $.99 second risk and purchase it. At $5.94 it’s cheaper than a trip to Starbuck’s and you’ll get more enjoyment out of it. If the indie acoustic music scene is lucky, Jonah, just like the ghosts he sings about, won’t disappear.

You can read more about Jonah at www.JonahoftheSea.com, and listen to his music there.