Monster Movie: Everyone Is a Ghost (Graveface)

Monster Movie

Everyone Is a Ghost

Graveface

Apr 05, 2010 Web Exclusive By Hays Davis

The checkered past of Monster Movie could naturally lead one to figure that their latest album, Everyone Is a Ghost, was a weekend-project lark. For their first release in five years, it happens that the duo has produced a pop collection that's engaging enough to tick off those who sweat with greater regularity over their craft.

Christian Savill and Sean Hewson formed Monster Movie (named after the Can album) in 1989, but various pursuits got in the way before they finally recorded under that name. The pair played together briefly in Eternal before Savill moved on to a stint with '90s shoegazers Slowdive. After reforming Monster Movie in 2000, they issued three albums and a few other releases before once again slipping below the radar in 2005.

Everyone Is a Ghost is largely a synth-pop record, though a pleasing range of possibilities is explored within that description. The bright buzz and electronic rhythms of "The World Collapsed" might have been a perfect Magnetic Fields vehicle, were Stephin Merritt not busy elsewhere. The sweetly ominous title track sounds like the product of '70s film soundtrack musicians finding their way playing '80s pop.

Few tracks stand out here as must-repeats; rather, the album plays more like a varied pop reverie that doesn't provoke any major emotional spikes. Still, whether through the electro-fuzz of "Bored Beyond Oblivion" or the acoustic platform under "In the Morning," Monster Movie sounds like a group of assured pop players, rather than part-timers, whose next record just might be essential. Even if another president is in office before we finally hear it. (www.myspace.com/monstermovie)

Author rating: 6/10

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