These Beautiful Ghosts

These Beautiful Ghosts opens with "Snow In Mexico," an ethereal and poignant piece Mark says is, "… about people collisions." Inspired by a newspaper headline, Mark ran with the spirit of the words. "It’s really about how people can blow hot and cold, be one way one minute and then completely different, the next." 

Texturally, the record does retain some of the atmospheric nuance that Ride knew so well. For reference, listening to mammoth pieces like the sweeping "Gravity Flow" but These Beautiful Ghosts is a completely different animal. "I wanted to make a record that’s got some weight and some emotional content, but is also interesting to listen to." The emotive quality of the record is certainly not lost to its soundscapes. Rather, the wedding of neat sounds to songs that reach out to us are palpable as in the bonafide pop song, "To Get Me Through" and the gorgeous "Summer Turns To Fall" (actually penned by Robin from Goldrush and American songwriter Danny Power while meditating on Mark’s time with Ride), with its uplifting harmonies reminiscent of the best things Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young have ever done. The rest of the record rolls off like a desert wind- memorable, mysterious and refreshing.