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Under The RadarJun 13, 2013Pale Green Ghosts reaches a personal level that can feel fascinatingly intimate or witheringly so. [Jun-Jul 2013, p.93]
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Jun 4, 2013An album of endless revelations, its dry wit and dreamy tunes suggest a mash-up between Pet Shop Boys and Jimmy Webb.
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May 17, 2013All is quite slick. It’s a touch proggy and bitter, but not without the piquancy of sauerkraut.
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May 16, 2013It's this sense that nothing is (seemingly) too private for him to share in a song that makes Pale Green Ghosts so potent and, ultimately, accessible
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May 14, 2013With Grant’s new Icelandic roots and electronica loyalties as a foundation for the sonic properties of Pale Green Ghosts--likely a far cry from the Midlake-backed organ-roots rock of Queen--the album somehow retains everything that’s made Grant such an anomaly in the underground pop world.
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Mar 19, 2013Throughout its running time, Pale Green Ghosts sees Grant ably balance a sense of humour with quietly devastating content.
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Mar 19, 2013Grant brilliantly skewers his own depression, addiction, bitchiness and heartbreak throughout a record which finds him mixing his penchant for corduroy, laid-back melodies with a new, rawly exposed synth-pop that feels like it's seeped up from an underground carpark, all hard concrete and cold, flickering fluorescents.
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Mar 13, 2013The risk pays off.
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Q MagazineMar 12, 2013As piano and strings crescendo, concluding Pale Green Ghosts' uncommon vistas of seriousness, levity and disco dancing, you can imagine the singer departing in triumph, and anything but an underdog. [Apr 2013, p.112]
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Mar 12, 2013Rest assured, his remarkable voice and grasp of melody remain undimmed and while it may not sound exactly as you were expecting, it is a bold, distinctive and genuinely excellent record.
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Mar 12, 2013John Grant's songs can be characterised by extreme restlessness and the state of suffering mental and physical discomfort within one's being. The irony and often confronting honesty he brings to these problems ensure Pale Green Ghosts is extremely engaging and often engrossing. But Queen of Denmark it is not.
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Mar 11, 2013It’s not all change though, there is still a sense of continuity.
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Mar 11, 2013The occasional familiar, Carpenters-esque track aside, it makes for an exhilarating musical progression--even as his lyrical style remains unchanged.
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Mar 8, 2013There's the occasional dud, and occasional dull moment, but Pale Green Ghosts mostly succeeds in expanding Grant's musical palette, and his wry, knowing observations and lyricism remain as sharp as ever.
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UncutMar 7, 2013It is arguably more satisfying [than his debut, Queen of Denmark], in its artistic courage, its refusal to meet expectations and its willingness to paint a brand new picture of gay demi-monde where the triumphs and tragedies have a deeper resonance than simple melodrama or camp. [Apr 2013, p.70]
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Mar 7, 2013The initial surprise on this follow-up is discovering that Grant’s songs work as well--if not even better--when paired with a synth-pop backing rooted more in the 1980s than the preceding decade.
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Mar 7, 2013A genuinely remarkable album: self-obsessed but completely compelling, profoundly discomforting but beautiful, lost in its own fathomless personal misery, but warm, funny and wise. It shouldn't work, but it does.
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Mar 7, 2013It’s not one for EDM purists or those who like their lyrics with any degree of ambiguity, but if you’re the kind of person who finds the very idea of John Grant interesting, you can revel in the fact that he just got a whole lot more complicated.
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Mar 7, 2013He’s made a motherf***ing exciting record, that’s for sure.
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Mar 7, 2013It’s a towering achievement, building on what has come before while expanding it in astonishing ways. This is undoubtedly one of the best albums of the year.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 39 out of 42
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Mixed: 2 out of 42
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Negative: 1 out of 42
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Jul 25, 2013
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May 16, 2013
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Feb 17, 2014