I’m suspended in mid air, outside of the human conception of time. Past, present, and future are all mixed together, no longer separate entities but enigmatic experiences simultaneously occurring. Life as a child, life as an adult, and life as an aging man float in circles like a ballroom dance. I’m not sure what to make of it, but I do know Haunted Days’ new album is the soundtrack and is a fitting, multi-sensory experience that is so lucid and visceral that you can almost reach out and touch it. The plucking percussion feels like moving the hands of a clock with your hand, the keys feel like playing with a toy keyboard unaware of the impending jaws of death decades upon decades away, the vocal samples feel like the circulation of all your past conversations mixed into purple haze much like the stunning album artwork. It’s an introspective body of work that will send you to the depths of consciousness and the height of the cosmos all at once.
Melodrama has a negative connotation associated with it, but I remember taking a course on melodramatic films in college that totally shifted my view of the signifier. I now see melodrama as an enhanced take on emotions, a necessary lens that’s like viewing them up close and personal through a microscope, being offered the ability to interact and understand rather than shooing away emotions as something that must be understated and implied. All that being said, I see Haunted Days as a perfect example of melodrama at its finest. Sorry for all the academic talk, but Haunted Days has truly sent me into a state of deep thought and I’m so fortunate to experience an album that makes me think and feel on a level that’s rare for music to procure. I can’t recommend The Ballroom Tape enough and encourage you to spin it and go on a journey of your own!
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