13Ghosts may very well be the most interesting self-loathing folk band out there in the indie universe and The Strangest Colored Lights is a dazzling salvo of distorted sounds laid over familiar elements of folk, county, and rock. Admittedly, the only real exception to the band’s finger-picked foundation is the thunderous “Beyond the Door.” The hissing acid vocals recall Babes in Toyland more than anything else and are matched with hammering bass and dissonant flushes of distortion. It’s a menacing sneer of a song and one that stands out among the rest, but that’s not to say that the majority of the album isn’t up to snuff. Quite the contrary.
Most of The Strangest Colored Lights is built on dirty folk and the band has a few tricks up its sleeve to rise above the image of the hippie nobody in anybar USA. Volume shifts are common, but often instead of the straightforward spikes on songs like “Bury Me,” the instruments band together for an all-out assault on the senses. The spattering noise of the bridges on “Go to Sleep” are both inventive and jarring. Even the most plaintive folk songs are injected with an ample dose of feedback and ambient twists. “Soon When I’m Gone” is overlaid with a siphoning effect that sounds like a high-watt plunger sucking out an electrical clog. On these lighter songs, 1Ghosts comes off like a cooler version of The Wallflowers with the same dusky vocals and tumbleweed kick under the alt rock.
In all, The Strangest Colored Lights is a sexy twist on usually tired genres and one that delivers a little something that contemporaries don’t.
--Matt Wendus [March 30, 2008]
