Allegedly Records – 21 Feb 2025
2025-Flavored Alt-Punk
Modern Day Ghost is the 4th offering from Pittsburgh punk rock group City Escape Artist, who have been at it in something resembling their current form for a decade. The LP hit a few strong nostalgic notes for me, the strongest being Green Day – the album’s premise and lyrics feel like a contemporary American Idiot, while the style and song length feels like Dookie (helped by “Modern Day Ghost” having the same chord changes as “Basket Case”) – with occasionally thrashy riffs and instrumental sections.
The ominous first track, “Invitation,” followed by the title track makes the album’s central premise clear: this is about contemporary stresses and uncertainty brought on by watching societal downturn, and maybe, downfall, ending with “When the imminent crash is displayed, and we still refuse to amend our ways, I think we are modern day ghosts.”
The vocals are enjoyable, while it’s clear what they’re talking about, they do it in such a way that won’t risk dating the album or narrowing their listener’s focus. The vocal melodies are catchy and easy to sing along to, the harmonies are tasteful and effective, and convey the album’s message well. The instrumentals are generally solid with some incredibly strong riffs, like “The Day” and the bass break in “Like Cash”, but the guitar leads can be hit or miss – there were a few times I struggled to hear them in the mix, like in “Constructs” and “Promises:Broke”, which felt like a letdown after the strong guitar solo in “Modern Day Ghost”.
Generally, I have mixed feelings about tracks like “Passageway”, expanding arranging from the chord band to guitar and synth strings, but it fits perfectly with this album’s overarching themes. I’d even say it’s warranted and I wish they had done more with it, or attempted to go bigger. While my first listen was overall enjoyable, my reaction to the last track ending was, “wait, that was it?”, and I warmed up to it by my second listen.
Modern Day Ghost is likely going to hit for any fans of melodic punk and fast guitar riffs, but it definitely has appeal for fans of pop-punk, alt-rock, and even fans of thrash when they’re looking for something a little more chill. It’s themes could make it a cathartic listen, but can be a little on the nose (I like track 5 a lot, but it’s a 43 second song that ends with “you are fucked”). Above all tough questions are posed here, and the toughest, to me, is “why did they use plural ‘ghosts’ in the song, but call it Modern Day Ghost?
Bandcamp (CD, digital DL)
Spotify
