Following on the heels of the release of their prior album, 'The Victorian Wallflowers', there was a major shakeup within Ashbury Heights. Tea F. Thimé, their erstwhile vocalist, made the decision to leave the band in order to pursue her Ph. D. While the split seems to have been amicable, it posed a bit of an issue for the future of the band. Yet, the eventual seeds for this album had been planted for bandleader Anders Hagström. A long period of silence followed, culminating in a 2020 announcement that, not only would longtime live keyboardist Johan Andersson become a full-fleged bandmenber, but original vocalist Yasmine (Yaz) Uhlin was returning to the fold. Clearly, great and sorrowful excitement was on its way.
It's understandable for an act, particularly one as venerable as Ashbury Heights, to have discarded incomplete musical conceptswith the passage of time. A particular path may not fit the timbre or mood of the album, it may be out of the norm for the group in general, they may not be able to put together satifactory elements to pull everything together, or there could be any number of other reasons why a good idea may be set aside along the way. While working on previous albums, Ashbury Heights would file these stillborn concepts away in a folder titled "Ghost House Sessions", and as the band was being reborn anew from pieces of prior incarnations, so too was the decision made to give these ideas a second chance. Initially intending to polish some of these ideas off to create a few singles, the concept eventually ballooned into a full double album (with a second part anticipated at some point in the future, as well, if we're all good little goblins).
Of the total 25 tracks split across this two CD set, 8 had been released as singles over the last few years with another two releasing this year between the announcement of the album and its release. Additionally, a few of the other tracks had been released as videos through their Youtube channel (their cover of Gerard McMann's "Cry Little Sister" was part of their year cover song release tradition), so many of the songs here would be familiar to anyone who has been following the band closely through the years. Still, even the familiar songs seem fresh within the greater context of the album. A few tracks are a little more experimental or upbeat sounding, which have been omitted from the vinyl release of the album if your collecting proclivities lead you in that direction, as mine have. Even there, care was put into the tracklist which differs greatly for a better flow when accounting for the missing songs, and the various inherent exentricities of the associated with the format. Personally, I think it makes for a stronger listening experience from start to finish than the digital version, but I am 1000% biased here, so please feel free to disregard my recommendation. If you are listening to the CD version, my suggestion would be to think of the first disc as the album proper and the second disc as bonus content.
This album, in a lot of ways, recalls the glory days of the early 2000's EBM/Future-Pop scene, particularly Apoptygma Berzerk (as Ashbury Heights, in general, often does for me). This is in no way to say that they
are a direct copy or even sound all that much alike; the comparison is found more in the base concept of combining upbeat and danceable music with morose and introspective lyrics. Ashbury Heights don't openly credit the music or lyrics on this album to any one individual, so we can only assume that most songs were either composed primarily by Hagström, or that all songs are a group composition (along with the many guest appearances featured throughout). That detail, though, is immaterial, because what you find here are some of the most infectious and wellcrafted synth leads, vocal melodies, harmonizations, and purcussive rhythms that you are likely to hear. The trio excel at developing their songs in a way that numerous pieces on this record will be stuck with you for days, as "Tunguska" has been with me for the last week.
One major way, however, that Ashbury differs from Apop is in their willingness to directly and bluntly approach topics of mental health, an issue that I find to be greatly relatable. While it''s great to just get
lost in the dance pop of songs like "Wild Eyes", it's the emotionally open and vulnerable moments of singles "Spectres of the Black Moss","Ghosts Electric, and the aformentioned "Tunguska" that really draw me in. To that point, though, "A Cut in a Place" is a perfect middle ground if you want that great, upbeat dance pop along with some crushingly hopeless lyrics. Classic. Taken as a whole, this album paints a rather bleak perspective; highlighting feelings of isolation, anxiety, and sociatal "othering". If you are looking for more of a positive mood, you won't find much in the dour lyrics. While there are ocassional lyrical rays of light that shine through the dreary clouds, they are few and all the more special because of that when they do arrive.
No matter how much attention Ashbury Heights gets, they deserve more. They have always produced some of the most well-crafted synthpop, electropop, futurepop, or however you choose to describe what it is that they do and with this album, they have outdone even their own standards. 'Three Cheers for the Newly Deads', 'The Looking Glass Society', and 'The Victorian Wallflowers' were all excellent albums that should have blown the dark scene apart at its seams, but at least here in America, that was far from the reality we've lived in. With any luck, 'The Ghost House Sessions Vol. 1' will get the attention it deserves from the "We love Lebanon Hanover, but we wish that we could literally never stop dancing" crowd. Whether you listen to the digital version, purchase a CD or vinyl copy, or just stream the singles on your preferred streaming service, I strongly believe that literally anyone who would be reading this website and has spent "A Lifetime in the Service of Darkness" would love their music. If by some means you are unfamiliar with them, take this review as a polite prodding to start with this album to find a new band act to obsess over.
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