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 im not taking the right drugs Nov 17, 2009
I have been a fan of this band for many years and considered zero 7 my favorite band until now. What a waste of money and time. Obviously I'm not taking the right drugs to enjoy this album. Let it be know that all thier other albums are incredible.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Dissappointing, But Still Hopeful Nov 13, 2009
I didn't read any reviews before I bought this album. I absolutely love this group and have never been disappointed in their work. And I didn't want my opinion tainted by what other people might say. That said, I listened through the album about four times and wondered if I was hearing the same thing other people were hearing. I guess I should not have been surprised to see my sentiments expressed in review after review. This album is nothing like their previous work and this is not a good thing. I don't think the singers are a bad match, I think the whole thing as a whole is just too shallow. If you listen to their previous stuff you can pick out layer after layer in the detail of the instrumentals. That's part of the joy of listening to their stuff! Even with the Garden being so much different, it at least stuck to the quality of detail that I love about these guys and I fell in love with it all the more. I am sorely disappointed in Yeah Ghost. It's neither challenging or familiar. There are a few interesting progressions but they are probably only such to trained musicians.
The good news is that I have faith that they will do better next time. Of course it is important for us as musicians to experiment and evolve. I credit this mess to this sort of endeavor and am hopeful that their next album will incorporate some of the quality and intricacies that Zero 7 is known for. I just hope they don't let me down. There is no other music like what they have done. I just hope that it's not the end of it.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Very different from the past work but amazingly good Nov 12, 2009
Simply put this is Zero7's best album yet.
I've been a very big fan of the first two albums "When it Falls" and "Simple Things" I haven't taken a plane flight in the last 5-6 years without putting one or both of those albums on to fall asleep to. They were very mellow and cohesive and unique musically.
This gave me concern when listening to clips from "Yeah Ghost" as it sounded quite different from the two earlier works. Having listened to it for a week now it's a great departure from their past style. The songs are catchy and fun. The range of sounds and instruments is great and you feel like you notice something new with each listen. Pop Art Blue is the most addictive track on the album for me, the melody and vocal work are a perfect combination. This and Swing are styled quite differently from tracks like Mr McGee and Sleepr yet they play back to back and flow together seamlessly.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Jumped The Shark Nov 09, 2009
I'm into downtempo. Zero 7, Air, all that jazz. I have all of these guys' stuff. When It Falls is one of my favorite records ever.
I was playing this for the first time with a friend of mine (who is not a music connoisseur) in my office.
Silence.
"This is pretty bad, isn't it?" I say to him.
"Yeah, really bad."
More silence.
"Man, this is awful." I switch to some other tracks.
Not getting any better.
"Is the whole disc like this?"
I listened to a total of four or five tracks and gave up. It's bad music by any standards. This is the first one star rating I have ever given.
It's a sad day. I'm going to go back and listen to all my Tina Dico CDs.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Shooting for something new, gunning down your fans in the process Nov 03, 2009
Anyone who considers him- or herself a fan of an artist is going to have strong biases working against them when an artist releases something new and different from what said fan might be used to hearing. This is especially true with artists that seem to have a "signature" sound--a hard-to-define musical profile that allows one to identify a song as being from the artist despite, perhaps, not having heard it before. Fans get used to this characteristic feel and get a sense of comfort from it, so its no surprise then when an artist like Zero 7 delievers something different their fans are often initially disappointed. 2009's Yeah Ghost is most certainly one of those releases, as the wealth of critical reviews already written reveals.
This new release is most certainly a great departure from Zero 7's norm, offering a different selection of vocals to accompany the now-tweaked electronic beats which are--to many, tragically--far less lush and relaxed than those of the outfit's previous releases. As has been said, The Garden--the most recent release prior to this latest one--was in itself a step away from the lineage established by Simple Things and When It Falls. What's important is that this step was a small one, and instead of turning their backs on their previous material in order to create anew, the boys of Zero 7 instead carefully refined and crafted their sound while adding a bit of spice. The Garden was a bit sharper, a bit tighter, a bit less "chill" than its predecessors, but the changes it brought did not come at the expense of their character. Instead, the evolution of Zero 7 into what created The Garden was a natural shift, one that almost certainly turned off ardent fans of previous releases, but did not tarnish those releases' collective legacy.
Unfortunately, Yeah Ghost cannot be handled so delicately. Sure, it is different in much the same way Garden was, but at what cost? Zero 7 have, to quote a cut from the third release, "[thrown] it all away," trading the smoothness of their erstwhile vocalists for harsh, grating, throw-away wailing that pairs about as well with the artist's sound as does a flying brick with a plate-glass window, with an acoustic result that's about as pleasing. What's worse, the gents have attempted to change their style to suit this new vocal direction, but instead of guiding the sound gently down a different path they've wrenched it destructively away from anything good, thrusting it violently into the artistic cesspool.
To summarize, as an album Yeah Ghost is utterly awful, neither exemplifying Zero 7 nor able to stand alone as any sort of musical artwork, resonating pitifully as some sort of failed experiment. This new release will likely impress few newcomers to the group, and swiftly alienate loyal fans, trading a good thing--no, a great thing--for a reckless shot at a redefinition. It's a popular trend these days for artists to brazenly seek to rip out the old to sloppily plaster on something new, a tragic fad that has seemed to sparkle far too brightly in Zero 7's eyes.
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