The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • Track Of The Day
  • Track Of The Month
  • Books + Movies
  • About
16
new
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SUZI MOON – TURBULENT HEARTS: ALL OUT
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SPARKS – MAD!
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: CLARA JOY – WHAT WE HAVE NOW
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: HOWARD JONES – PIANO COMPOSED IVORY & PIANO COMPOSED SPIRIO
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SEDONA – GETTING INTO HEAVEN
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JESS KERBER – “FROM WAY DOWN HERE”
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: POST DEATH SOUNDTRACK – IN ALL MY NIGHTMARES I AM ALONE
SPILL FEATURE: WHEN EVERY NOTE GOES UNDER THE MICROSCOPE – A CONVERSATION WITH HOWARD JONES
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: CDSM – “SHOCKABLE RHYTHM”
SPILL NEW MUSIC: AYSANABEE RELEASES NEW TRACK “HOME” FROM UPCOMING ALBUM ‘EDGE OF THE EARTH’ OUT JUNE 20 ON ISHKŌDÉ RECORDS
SPILL NEWS: CHARLOTTE DE WITTE ANNOUNCES “NO DIVISION” FROM LONG-AWAITED DEBUT ALBUM OUT NOVEMBER 7 | 6 NEW YORK SHOWS IN 4 DAYS
SPILL NEW MUSIC: DAN PALLOTTA – “WORKING MAN’S SON”
SPILL FEATURE: FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE WE LIKE IT REALLY STUPID LOUD – A CONVERSATION WITH OLIVER ACKERMANN OF A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: UNCLE STRUT – HOME AT LAST
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: MARTE EBERSON – “PARADISE”
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: SAFARI ROOM – “CUT OUT”
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • Track Of The Day
  • Track Of The Month
  • Books + Movies
  • About
  • Spill Menu
    • Reviews
      • Album Reviews
      • Features
      • Live Reviews
      • Festivals
    • Portraits
    • Headlines
      • News
      • Contests
      • Events
      • Entertainment Headlines
      • Concert Listings
      • Toronto Concert Venues
    • New Music
      • Premieres
      • Track Of The Day
    • Track Of The Month
    • Books + Movies
    • About
Album Reviews
256
previous article
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LUCIUS - SECOND NATURE
next article
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: WET LEG - WET LEG

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ZERO 7 – YEAH GHOST (BONUS EDITION)

Zero 7

Zero 7
Yeah Ghost (Bonus Edition)
New State Music

Zero 7’s Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns had real problems when they parted ways with Sia, their ‘unofficial lead singer,’ after her 2008 album Some People Have Real Problems. Despite nominations for a Grammy Award and the UK’s prestigious Mercury Prize, the London downtempo duo worried their music would be forever relegated to soundtracking bourgeois TV cooking shows. Consequently, their fourth album, 2009’s Yeah Ghost, traded nuance and restraint for sounds piped in to American casual restaurant chains full of noshing youth. They further reckoned half an album of aspirant contemporary pop and half an album of challenging electronica equaled one new direction, but Yeah Ghost is all over the place.

Turns out the pop songs are more challenging than the experiments. With an excess of vocalist Eska’s upbeat style, “Mr McGee” drops like a submarine crushing the hopes of fans longing for Sia. Zero 7 out-excess themselves on “Swing” and “Pop Art Blue,” incorporating every idle instrument languishing in the studio, including flute, trombone, xylophone, marimba, steel drums, and—banjo? In a play for the kids, Eska’s myriad vocal embellishments on neo-soul/trap single “Medicine Man” compete to be more grating than the clangy, death-laser synths. A Mercury Prize nominee herself, Eska’s redemption is her gospel blues meditation on “The Road” and saving the beat-driven Outkast outcast, “Sleeper.”

Though he wasn’t officially part of the project, producer Nigel Godrich is the true ghost looming in the Radiohead-y atmospherics of the more experimental tracks. For the abstract dub of “Ghost sYMbOL,” Binki Shapiro’s voice is pitch shifted and multi-tracked beyond recognition, a space age love song centerpiece. “Everything Up (Zizou)” isn’t Beck’s “Think I’m in Love” (produced by Godrich!) in disguise, but it was inspired by French footballer Zinedine “Zizou” Zidane. Sung by Binns himself, it is a bonafide departure packed with unexpected lyrical turns like Zizou’s signature move: “Spot the difference if you can, yes we can, imagine if we can.”

Spotting the difference between “Ghost sYMbOL” and its unreleased “Kling version” on the 2022 reissue is far more difficult, however. The CD edition also includes forgettable instrumental “E Sgwers (Demo)” and the previously digital-only “Methods.” The impetus for the 2022 reissue, though, is its double- 180g heavyweight, first-ever pressing on vinyl.



Artist Links

website_flat_2016 facebook_flat_2016 twitter_flat_2016 instagram_flat_2016

Item Reviewed

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ZERO 7 – YEAH GHOST (BONUS EDITION)

Author

Charles T. Stokes

Here's what we think...
Spill Rating
Fan Rating
Rate Here
New Criteria
10
8.2
6.0
Total Spill Rating
—
Total Fan Rating
1 rating
You have rated this
Album Reviews
album reviewalbum reviewsghost symbolnew state musicyeah ghost (bonus edition)zero 7
album review, album reviews, ghost symbol, new state music, yeah ghost (bonus edition), zero 7
About the Author
Charles T. Stokes
Charles T. Stokes is a nonprofit resource development coordinator and donor researcher based in Denver, USA. He’s also a tennis player and writer looking to make a racket with his own noises. “There are places in the world where one cannot publicly listen to or perform whatever music they choose without fear of harassment or prosecution. The freedom to write about new music is power, a privilege.”
RELATED ARTICLES
album reviewalbum reviewsnew state music
 
7.0
suzi moon
10

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SUZI MOON – TURBULENT HEARTS: ALL OUT

by Gerrod Harris on May 23, 2025
SUZI MOON TURBULENT HEARTS: ALL OUT PIRATES PRESS RECORDS Before she was the Suzi Moon, she was Suzi Moon, singer and guitarist of the punk power trio, Turbulent Hearts. Formed in 2010, the band had originally released three EPs – Panic (2017), [...]
 
10
Sparks

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SPARKS – MAD!

by Joseph Mastel on May 23, 2025
SPARKS MAD! TRANSGRESSIVE RECORDS For over 50 years, brothers Ron and Russell Mael, known as Sparks, have given us some of the most invigorating music, seemingly tackling every genre in their way, with ease. Their newest album, MAD!, is another [...]
 
9.0
Clara Joy

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: CLARA JOY – WHAT WE HAVE NOW

by Ljubinko Zivkovic on May 23, 2025
CLARA JOY WHAT WE HAVE NOW SHIMMY-DISC Neither NYC singer-songwriter Clara Joy nor Kramer, the man behind Shimmy-Disc are newbies on the music scene (Kramer quite a bit longer), and it might have taken them time to cooperate, but on What We Have [...]
 
9.0
Howard Jones

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: HOWARD JONES – PIANO COMPOSED IVORY & PIANO COMPOSED SPIRIO

by Aaron Badgley on May 23, 2025
HOWARD JONES PIANO COMPOSED IVORY & PIANO COMPOSED SPIRIO CHERRY RED RECORDS Howard Jones never really does what you would expect him to do. He has returned to classical music with the Piano Composed albums, one called Ivory and the other [...]
 
8.0
Sedona

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SEDONA – GETTING INTO HEAVEN

by Ljubinko Zivkovic on May 23, 2025
SEDONA GETTING INTO HEAVEN INDEPENDENT If you are a Los Angeles singer-songwriter through and through and you are coming up with your debut album, it just might come as no surprise that your music just might be a combination between 70s Laurel [...]

Latest Album Reviews
View All
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SUZI MOON – TURBULENT HEARTS: ALL OUT
7.0
10
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SPARKS – MAD!
10
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: CLARA JOY – WHAT WE HAVE NOW
9.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: HOWARD JONES – PIANO COMPOSED IVORY &...
9.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SEDONA – GETTING INTO HEAVEN
8.0

STAY UP-TO-DATE
WITH OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER!

Tweets by @spillmagazine

SPILL MAGAZINE MENU
  • Home | The Spill Magazine
  • Newsletter
  • Premieres
  • SPILL RETRO REVIEWS
  • Track Of The Month
  • Album Reviews
  • Books + Movies
  • Features
  • Live Reviews
  • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • News
  • Events
  • Entertainment Headlines
  • Concert Listings
  • Toronto Concert Venues
  • About Us
  • Contests
  • New Music
  • Contributors
  • TOTD
  • Privacy Policy
  • The Scene Unseen
  • Newsletter

Copyright © 2024 | The Spill Magazine
All Rights Reserved.

TRENDING RIGHT NOW
   
 
SPILL CONTEST: WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO SEE ACTORS AT LEE’S PALACE ON MAY 3!
510
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BRYAN FERRY & AMELIA BARRATT – LOOSE TALK
479
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MUMFORD & SONS – RUSHMERE
479
 
SPILL FEATURE: A NEW ERA OF CAR SEAT – A CONVERSATION WITH SETH DALBY, ETHAN IVES & ANDREW KATZ OF CAR SEAT HEADREST
430
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JETHRO TULL – CURIOUS RUMINANT
400
 
SPILL CONTEST: WIN A MEET-AND-GREET PACKAGE TO SEE ALESSIA CARA AT ROY THOMSON HALL ON MAY 15!
391
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JIMMY PAGE & THE BLACK CROWES – LIVE AT THE GREEK (25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
369
 
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: SLAMDINISTAS – “WHERE I BELONG”
365
 
SPILL FEATURE: IT JUST FEELS LIKE WE’RE A LITTLE MORE IN CHARGE – A CONVERSATION WITH CRISPIAN MILLS OF KULA SHAKER
359
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PETER MURPHY – SILVER SHADE
353
 
SPILL CONTEST: WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO SEE EBO TAYLOR AT THE CONCERT HALL ON APRIL 13!
342
 
SPILL FEATURE: IN THE MEANTIME – A CONVERSATION WITH JONNY CRAGG OF SPACEHOG
321
 
SPILL CONTEST: WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO SEE SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD ON MARCH 21 AT LEE’S PALACE!
304
ENTERTAINMENT HEADLINES