Ghost Machine – Hypersensitive Review

Website: Ghost Machine

You’ve probably experienced this before: you find an independent band with a good, likeable sound that you enjoy. The band signs a record contract, gets into the studio, releases a record, and all of the songs you loved are now over-produced to hell, and the new work isn’t as good as the original songs that attracted you to the band.

Ghost Machine is one of those bands, and Hypersensitive is that studio release. Hypersensitive is a remake/re-release of the band’s self-titled release in 2005, featuring most of the songs from that effort, as well as increased production values and new tunes. If you’ve listened to that record, you’re most likely looking for Hypersensitive as well, but if not, I can still help you out.

So, for the record, mostly every track from their original release is here, and most sound better than before. “What You Made Me (Ugli)”, “Headstone”, and “God Forbid” are even better than before, and they’re absolutely solid hard-rock/industrial tracks that work well. “Vegas Moon”, however, has “benefited” from an added snare effect of sorts that sounds out of place and, many times, mistimed. Also, for some reason, “Rock In Roll”, one of the best tracks on the previous album, was omitted from Hypersensitive, and I’ve no idea why.

However, the new songs aren’t as good as the returning songs. “Skank” and “Sheltered” were obviously written for a specific reason (the band’s MySpace page alludes to a messy divorce involving one of the band members), but they’re uninteresting when compared to the rest of the album. “Crawl” is a mess that doesn’t work on any level. “Desert Rose”, “Bondage”, and “Lull-A-Bye” are less songs and more semi-vocalized soundscapes. And nine of the tracks are either dead space or instrumentals that add little to the final product.

All told, Hypersensitive is a polarizing effort; what is good here is very good, features good lyrical writing and a solid sound, but what is bad is either weak or uninteresting. There are more than five songs on the CD that are good, so I’m comfortable recommending it, but if you own the self-titled original release, well, you own all of those songs already. Hypersensitive ends up an okay first studio effort from a band that could obviously do better, and hopefully will do so in the future.