Description

After a breakthrough year that saw his exceptional solo debut Queen Of Denmark win MOJOs album of 2010 and countless other accolades John Grant hasnt rested on his laurels but created a follow-up that underlines his uncanny and charismatic talents. Recorded in Iceland and featuring Sinead OConnor on guest vocals, the brilliant Pale Green Ghosts adds sublime notes of dark, gleaming electronica to the anticipated velveteen ballads, calling on all of Grants influences and tastes, presenting an artist at the peak of his powers.

Its been an extraordinary journey for John Grant, from a point where he thought he would never make music again or escape a life of substance abuse to winning awards and accolades, collaborating with Sinead OConnor, Rumer and Hercules & Love Affair and having his music featured in the award-winning film Weekend.

Its a journey thats taken him from his birthplace in Buchanan, Michigan to be raised in Parker, Colorado, studying languages in Germany and, after his band The Czars split up, basing himself in New York, London, Berlin and, most recently, Iceland, where the bulk of Pale Green Ghosts was recorded. Its also been a journey from The Czars folk/country noir to the lush 70s FM alchemy of Queen Of Denmark to the astonishing fusion of sounds that lifts Pale Green Ghosts to even giddier heights.

As if to acknowledge his journey, Grant has named the album after the opening title track, which documents the drives that hed regularly take through the 80s, from Parker to the nearby metropolis of Denver, to the new wave dance clubs that have inspired the electronic elements of Pale Green Ghosts, and later on to visit the boyfriend the TC of Queen Of Denmarks TC & Honeybear that inspired many of that albums heartbreaking scenarios.

Id take the I-25, between Denver and Boulder, which was lined with all these Russian olive trees, which are the pale green ghosts of the title: they have this tiny leaves with silver on the back, which glow in the moonlight, Grant explains. The song is about wanting to get out of a small town, to go out into the world and become someone and made my mark.

That Grant has made his mark is blatantly clear from how Queen Of Denmark was rapturously received. Like a couple of similarly intense classics before it Antony & The Johnsons I Am A Bird Now and Bon Ivers For Emma Queen Of Denmark sounds like a record its creator has been waiting his whole life to make, MOJO concluded. Another measure of achievement, and the journey, is that one classic that Grant first heard in those new wave clubs was Sinead OConnors Mandinka. Two decades later, OConnor has not only covered the title track of Queen Of Denmark on her latest album How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?, but supplies goose-bumping backing vocals on Pale Green Ghosts.

Sineads presence is a surprise, but not compared to the albums portion of synthesisers and beats unless you already know Grants enduring love of vintage synth-pop and industrial dance, and more current electronic acts such as Trentemøller and Mock & Toof. Electronica is a huge part of my personality and my influences, though I dont think many people see that fitting in to the John Grant image, whatever that is, he says. There were occasional electronic undertows to Czars songs and two tracks (Thats the Good News and Supernatural Defibrillator) on the deluxe edition of Queen Of Denmark were dance tracks.

One of those prime influences has even produced Pale Green Ghosts with Grant: Birgir Þórarinsson, a.k.a. Biggi Veira, of Icelands electronic pioneers Gus Gus. Queen of Denmark had been recorded in Texas with fellow Bella Union mates Midlake as his backing band, and Grant intended to return there to record again with the bands rhythm section of McKenzie Smith and Paul Alexander. But a trip beforehand to see more of Iceland, after hed first played the Iceland Airwaves festival in 2011, led to meeting Biggi, who invited Grant to his studio in Reykjavik. The two tracks the pair recorded Pale Green Ghosts and Black Belt convinced Grant he had to make the entire record there.

If Queen Of Denmark is Grants 70s album, channeling the spirits of Karen Carpenter and Bread, then Pale Green Ghosts is his80s album. Of the electronic tracks, the title track is a panoramic, brooding classic, while Sensitive New Age Guy and Black Belt are the tracks that you might dance to in new wave clubs. You Dont Have To is a classic example of Grants influences blending together, in a reworked arrangement of a track unveiled during concert tours in 2011. It also features the distinct spacey Moog sounds that are familiar to lovers of Queen Of Denmark, while McKenzie and Alexander play on Vietnam and It Doesnt Matter To Him. Grants touring partner, keyboardist Chris Pemberton, plays the gorgeous piano coda on the albums tumultuous finale Glacier.