Ghostpoet: Dark Days + Canapés — ‘psychodramas of everyday life’

Ghostpoet

Dark Days + Canapés

(Play It Again Sam)

With 2015’s Shedding Skin album, British vocalist Ghostpoet (real name Obaro Ejimiwe) began to move away from processed beats towards a band-based sound, a shift that continues on his bleak but powerful fourth album. Through a haze of guitars, drums, piano and strings, Ejimiwe delivers his foreboding lyrics in a kind of urban sprechgesang, London accent to the fore and glottal stops galore. “Immigrant Boogie” is a standout track, the clanging, harrowing tale of a family of migrants on a sinking boat. Others such as “Trouble + Me” highlight the psychodramas of everyday life. If it all sounds a bit grim, it is; but Ejimiwe’s drawled, deadpan delivery prevents it from slipping into gothic horror.

★★★★☆