You needn’t feel concerned if - five seconds into Ghosts
- you feel an intense wave of confusion rush over you. Is this a
dEUS song or a Lilt commercial? For the steel drums
that kick in just after the percussion are so un-dEUS that, in truth, you could
be forgiven for thinking Tom Barman had traded in his Belgian nationality for
something mas tropical. Fear not though. Steel reverberations aside, this is dEUS warm and snug in the
centre of a comfort zone established long ago. Tom for
instance shows up not long after those Caribbean aberrations, sounding as usual
like a nuclear explosion wouldn’t faze him. If this
man had been born a parrot, his feathers would be unruffleable: he is that (ahem) cool. The structure of
Ghosts is dEUS-by-numbers too. Chorus verse chorus,
building like many times before to an electric guitar explosion at the close. Bought the t-shirt, as they say.
However like expensive clocks and German cars, just because
it’s old doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Ghosts soars.
Take for instance the gusto with which Tom bites into
couplets like: ‘It wasn’t til I met you that I realised / I wasn’t living in a
movie but a franchise.’ So bad it almost makes you
want to cover your eyes. But enormous fun.
Or how the sing-rapping at the verses becomes a
soaring melody at the chorus. Sure then. Steel drums aside,
no one is going to confuse Ghosts for a masterpiece of
original song-writing. But does it matter, when the track is this fun? No. No it does not.
[Get it here: Deus - Keep You Close]
[Get it here: Deus - Keep You Close]
