If Ghostwoman’s last eponymous album (2022) is an open top classic Ford Mustang driving in sunshine on the Pacific Coast Highway, then Hindsight is 50/50 is a midnight black Ford GT40 with tinted windows crawling through the city streets at night with the low rumble of its V8 engine bouncing off the buildings. Ghostwoman have seemingly returned after a year and a half living in caverns, soaking up subterranean vibes and seeing how low you can tune a guitar and still make music.
Whereas Ghostwoman was a psych-tinted delight that I described at the time as having a “languid but taught feel like sandpaper and honey”, Hindsight is 50/50 is brooding and blackhole-dark. It shines with a murky intensity from the opening track ‘Bonehead’, which combines laser sharp fuzz guitar with thunderous low blasts that quicken the pulse.
Evan Uschenko on guitar and vocals (and all instruments that aren’t drums) and Ille van Dessel on drums can move from the prowling big cat blues of ‘Alright Alright’ and ‘Highly Unlikely’ to the abraded surf rock of ‘Ottessa’. Former single ‘Yoko’ still stands out as not only a highlight on the album but also one of my tracks of the year, as it propels the album up to 170 bpm leaving a trail of burning rubber behind it.
‘Juan’ lifts the album off the road and into space on an icy, faster-than-light journey, and the title track ‘Hindsight is 50/50’ could be a synthesiser-free take on Depeche Mode when they turned away from pop to the dark side. It’s only on the final track ‘Buik’ that there is a flash of the psych that was on the last album but slowed down and slightly unsteady on its feet.
Vocals are held way back in the mix and drift through clouds of reverb which add mystery, while the guitar doesn’t just vibrate air it often warps it, with only the drums keeping a tight hold on the leash in order to stop the band careening off the road and over a cliff. In the way that the White Stripes pulled blues apart and added razor blades, so Ghostwoman have taken psych and goth and stripped everything back to sinew and bone. They command the sub bass frequencies and harness electricity like a Van de Graaff generator to create a phenomenal noise that seeks to entice the listener to climb into their midnight black cruiser and experience life behind those darkened windows.
Ghostwoman socials: Website | Facebook | X-Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
Ghostwoman on tour in 2024:
1st February – Brighton, Hope & Ruin
2nd February – London, Studio 9294
4th February – Dublin, Workman’s Club Cellar
5th February – Manchester, Yes Pink Room
6th February – Birkenhead, Future Yard
7th February – Glasgow, The Voodoo Rooms
10th February – Bristol, Crofter’s Rights
Review by Paul F Cook
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