The World's Greatest Ghosts are a synth-pop-rock quintet based in Portland that fall somewhere in the spectrum of up-tempo
Fruit Bats and
Wolf Parade but with a little more synthesizer. They also seem to be quite fond of Dungeon and Dragons, Nintendo, and medieval fairy tales.
The 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.
The band's full-length debut,
No Magic, will be available November 10th via Lucky Madison (home to
Horse Feathers and
Talkdemonic).
* * * * * * * * * * * *
World's Greatest Ghosts on Myspace