Music Review: End Of Love, Ghosts On The Radio

By Melissa Bratcher

There are a lot of cooks in the band End Of Love. The press release refers to them as a collective of musicians, and from the unevenness of their album Ghosts On The Radio, it certainly seems they’re more of a collective. The players on Ghosts On The Radio read like a who’s who of college radio: Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth, Chris Stamey from the dB’s, members of Wilco and Big Star. There’s a rotating cast of vocalists, most notably Django Haskins from Old Ceremony, but also Skylar Gudasz, Karlie Bruce, and Elisa Peimer.

The problem with End Of Love’s Ghosts On The Radio comes with the production. It’s overly slick and often passionless. There’s a punky spirit to the opener, “Falling Hard,” in its gritty guitar with a hint of wildness. The problem is the female vocalist. While she has a fine voice, her vocals are so disaffected it’s offputting. There’s no feeling behind the feeling. The same problem befalls the MOR “Fade Away.” The singer’s tone is great, but she sounds bored. The guitar is pleasantly chunky and the keyboard line is so subtle and catchy it makes ones brain itch. It’s OK.

But you don’t want your songs to be merely “OK,” right? Luckily, “Take This Heart” is better. This female vocalist pours on the warmth on this alt country track. The guitars are focal points here, with chiming guitars marrying weeping steel. Django Haskins from Old Ceremony fronts “Who Do You See,” and he’s always a welcome addition. It’s got a 1980s indie rock feel with neon urgency, yet it’s bloodless and ends on an odd power chord. Better is the appealing “Let It Go,” also sung by Haskins. It has grit and charm and shiny harmonies and is livelier than most of the other tracks on Ghosts On The Radio. The closer, “Beautiful,” has a definite ’80s college radio thing going on with a hushed wall of feedback and a dreamy burbling feeling. At nearly 7 minutes, it goes on a bit long and doesn’t have much to say, but it does sound as if the band is enjoying playing.

End Of Love, of course, is influenced by Big Star and does carry the torch of power pop. “100 Years” is the power poppiest track with a radio friendly chorus that has Cars-like harmonies. It’s inoffensive, but not great. The female singer has a fine voice. The singer on “Color Of My Eyes” has a charming crack to her voice. The drumming is crackerjack and the guitar work is quite nice. It’s just all so… OK. Imagine the songs that show up on a John Hughes movie soundtrack, the ones from that band you’ve never heard of? It’s that.

It’s not that Ghosts On The Radio  is a terrible record. It’s not. It’s just middling. There are good moments and excellent musicianship, but it’s pulled off in a spectacularly lackluster manner.

Ghosts On The Radio was released by Vitalic Noise Records on December 11.