Labels: Peephole People
Review by: Andy Malcolm
I heard a track from this band on a blog, and it was rather good I thought. I also thought “this band is from San Diego”. And they were. It might have had something to do with the fact that it sounded like Pinback, and a bit like the Jade Shader. If you’ve listened to a certain strand of output from San Diego indie rock over the past decade or two, then you’ll probably know exactly what I am talking about. If not, you’ll probably have skipped to the next review already. Anyways. Helen Earth have put together a reasonable album here, but I am afraid it rather collapses under it’s own 45ish minute weight, unable to sustain the required song writing to pull things off. Opener “Shakencutt” shows them at their most enjoyable, a gentle number that summons post hardcore guitars and poppier moments. However, this is the first song on the record and they struggle to come near it’s quality again for the rest of the album. They do steer dangerously close to pungent cheese territory at points, borrowing a few pages from the Jimmy Eat World song book, but accidentally filing them inside the post-rock instruction manual, thus depleting them of any catchiness. It’s all generally pleasant enough but songs are lengthy, and tend to lack rather in hooks, making the whole process of listening to Our Own Ghost City an exercise in concentration. This makes for a perfectly decent background record, but it is a bit of a chore when it comes to reviewing it, as my attention starts to wander and… oh hmm, I probably ought to get round to dusting that shelf.