Monday, May 18, 2015

REVIEW: Great Peacock - Making Ghosts



Great Peacock is growing up quite nicely, thank you very much.  Wielding a razor sharp heart-on-our sleeve brand of songwriting to create pop anthems with southern rock and folk accents,  Making Ghosts builds impressively on the band's debut EP to present listeners with a gem that ticks all of the right boxes.  The harmonies are gorgeous and the melodies instantly memorable.  The guitars adeptly shift between crunchy indie rock, country-fried folk and summery tropical pop, with every note perfectly placed.  But most of all, the duo's songwriting skills here are razor sharp.  These songs manage to feel both fresh and like comfortable old friends.  Yes, Blount Floyd and Andrew Nelson are southern born and bred, living in Nashville, but this northern lad finds it easy to connect with these heartfelt tunes.  And I think connection is a major theme with, and behind, Making Ghosts.  Blount and Andrew are telling us stories of their lives and community, and doing it in a manner to which we can relate, and with a delivery that makes us want to hear it again.  The songs are vivid and widescreen, and not tethered to any genre.  Whether you are in the front row, the back row, or at home with headphones on, you are part of Great Peacock's world when you listen to this album.  Honestly, just listening to them makes me feel good about being alive.

Choosing songs to illustrate the album proved to be exceptionally difficult.  I listened to the album again while writing this post, and realized that I was inserting over half the songs, and regretting the omission of the songs I hadn't chosen.  Ultimately, I exercised some restraint, but I'm not happy about it.  So I encourage you to go to the Bandcamp page linked below and play the entire album.










Great Peacock is, in addition to Blount and Andrew, Nick Recio, Ben Cunningham, and Clay Houle.  Making Ghosts is out now via This Is American Music.  It is available in CD and deluxe vinyl formats and as a digital download (see the Bandcamp link for ordering information).

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